Port Nouveau adorné par le canal de l'Aritre

This etching mocks the construction of the Charleroi-Brussels canal through grotesque exaggeration and visual absurdity. A pompous military officer stands watch over a chaotic waterfront where workers, soldiers, and indigenous figures labor amid half-finished fortifications and a crocodile—symbols of colonial ambition and engineering hubris. The print channels the 18th-century satirical tradition of Hogarth and Gillray, using caricature to deflate nationalist pride. As a hand-colored etching, it exemplifies how political satire reached the public through fine printmaking, a direct ancestor of the illustrated broadsheets and modern comics that followed.