Meditate with Adolphe Martial Potémont (1827-1883)

On the waxed and reflective background of a long brunette table, some infosed and white debris seem to have stranded after the storm. To look more closely, these are two letters, well identifiable. Open visibly with eagerness, they lie there, defeated. Their missives, partially folded, have the whiteness of a shroud. No writing appears, or almost. A shame for messages that seem expected. In this trompe-l’oeil painting, the Parisian artist Adolphe Martial Potémont, a rather specialist in etching, testifies in his own way of the drama of the Franco-German war of 1870 and its consequences. The philatelists will appreciate its sense of detail: we identify on the different stamps of the Cerès format.

Two 25 blue cents, and a 15 cents bistre-yellow. Emitted at the beginning of September 1871 to accompany an increase in prices, they allow us to free up ordinary letters of less than 10 grams. The stamps testify to the origin of the letters: Metz and Strasbourg, with the terrible “foreigner” mention affixed to them. Because the two East provinces are part of the tribute that it was necessary to pay for the conflict to end. Like tears of lost sobs, small light blue flowers of myosotis and the turquoise, white and yellow petals of thoughts also pour out on the table: “Love me”, “remember me”, they say, in The language of flowers. And lovers. And also in that of transi patriots.