Dumouriez opgehangen (Dumouriez Hanged)

This Dutch etching depicts the execution of French General Charles-François Dumouriez, a controversial figure during the Revolution. Three figures gesture toward a hanged body suspended from an ornate street lamp inscribed "À Paris." The print emerges from a rich tradition of political satire—descended from Hogarth and practiced by Gillray and Rowlandson—that used engraved images to comment on current events. By the 1790s, as revolutionary fervor swept Europe, such prints became instruments of propaganda and political instruction, often crude in their messaging. This image reflects the violent factional struggles of the Terror and the appetite for graphic depictions of justice (or vengeance) in print form. The tradition of satirical engraving would eventually shape the visual language of early comics.