'Le Régime Parlementaire' — Napoleon III

James Tissot's chromolithograph, the first in Vanity Fair's 'Sovereigns' series, caricatures Napoleon III — Emperor of the French, then governing under increasing constitutional pressure — as a stooped, world-weary figure in Napoleonic bicorne and brown overcoat, leaning heavily on a walking-stick. Behind him, a winged allegorical France in a striped ball-gown presses one finger to her lips: a commentary on the emperor's reluctance toward parliamentary reform. The caption, Le régime parlementaire, addresses the political moment: Napoleon III had just granted genuine legislative powers in May 1869, a concession widely read as weakness. Tissot renders the Emperor's famous moustache and heavy-lidded gaze with affectionate precision, but the hunched posture conveys imperial decline.