In the rivers, under the shade of the trees and under the shelter of the kepi: Graphic representations of military cleanliness and rest during the French intervention in Mexico

Abstract

This article examines some representations of military cleanliness and rest during the French Intervention in Mexico, based on the iconographic and icono-textual analysis of images and reports published in three of the most widely circulated French prints of the time: the illustrated weeklies “L'Illustration Journal Universel” and “Le Monde Illustré”, and the satirical newspaper “Le Charivari”. The two engravings and lithograph were compared with letters, memoirs, manuals, and journalistic pieces by Mexican and French authors in order to observe the graphic expression of the concepts of hygiene and privacy that began to take root socially in both countries from the second half of the 19th century. It is proposed that, despite protocolization, combatants on both sides had to adapt to the harsh conditions of war to recover from it amidst snoring, heat, the anxiety of enemy threat, and dreams of conquest.