The Print, the Pear, and the Prostitute: Art, Politics, and Society in 19th-Century France

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Louis-Philippe, the Orleanist "citizen-king," ruled during the period of France's July Monarchy (1830-48). A devoted husband and father of eight, he promoted the image of a bourgeois family man and defined his rule as representing juste-milieu--the middle ground, "equally distant from the abuses of royal power and the excesses of popular power."

His popularity, however, was short-lived. Relentlessly assaulted by caricaturists and even brought up on charges of lese-majeste--violating the dignity of the king; he was sentenced to prison for six months and fined 2,000 francs for the offense--Louis-Philippe saw his reign end with the Revolution of 1848. Forced into exile, he died in England in 1850 at age 77.

Perhaps his most …