You Have Honor... 1825 - 1826

Auguste Raffet made this lithograph, "You Have Honor...", in France, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Raffet was one of a generation of artists who came of age after the French Revolution, and who made their careers navigating the changing political landscape of the Bourbon Restoration and the July Monarchy. Lithography was a relatively new medium at the time, and its accessibility allowed artists like Raffet to circulate their work widely, contributing to a growing sense of national identity and popular culture. Here, we see a group of soldiers carousing outside a tavern, perhaps celebrating a recent victory, but the inscription underneath, which translates as, “You have honor, you have mustaches, you will have a job!” hints at the political patronage of the time, in which loyalty and appearance often mattered more than merit. As historians, we can use a variety of sources—political pamphlets, newspapers, popular songs—to understand the social context in which Raffet created this image. By doing so, we gain a deeper appreciation of the complex relationship between art and society in 19th-century France.