Le Berger dévenu Roi — Partage du gâteau (The Shepherd Become King — Dividing the Cake)

This French etching satirizes political intrigue following Belgium's independence, depicting figures in animal-headed caricature gathered around a cake (the state). The composition follows Gillray and Daumier's tradition of moral allegory rendered through exaggerated physiognomy and costume. Each figure represents a political faction or foreign power claiming a share of power. This tradition—stretching from Hogarth through German Bilderbogen—established visual vocabulary later absorbed into early comics: caricature as argument, grotesque bodies as moral commentary, and sequential narrative stripped to essential figures and symbols.