The Parade of the Gods (La Gigolade des Gottes)

This hand-colored lithograph satirizes wartime shoe prices during World War I, depicting an absurdist parade of anthropomorphic boots and shoes—some marked 150 francs, others 200 francs—paraded by a clownish figure juggling price tags. The exaggerated, theatrical composition mocks the inflation and profiteering that plagued civilian economies as the war dragged on. René de Pauw employs the visual language of the European satirical print tradition—the grotesque caricature, ornamental detail, and political wit—conventions descended from Hogarth and Daumier. The cartoon channels public frustration into crude comedy, using commodity objects as stand-ins for commercial exploitation. Such prints circulated widely as affordable, mass-produced critiques accessible to working-class readers.