La maladie du sommeil
1911
Imagine a giant taking a nap, only to find tiny people building fences and planting flags all over his lawn. That's the sharp satire of Gordon Ross's 1911 cartoon 'The Sleeping Sickness.' A massive, slumbering African figure leans against a palm tree while tiny representatives of European nations—identified by flags from England, France, Germany, and others—frantically carve up the land around him. In the foreground, workers are assembling giant letters spelling 'AFRICA,' treating the entire continent like a real estate project, complete with ironic 'Keep Off' signs that the colonizers are ignoring.
- Technique
- color lithograph