alfred dreyfus received support from who

#Alfred dreyfus received support from who series#

He was found guilty once again but this time he was pardoned and set free. Zola’s actions put new pressure on the French government to have a retrial for Dreyfus.

Before the sentencing, he fled to England and stayed there for a year in 1898, before eventually venturing back to France. Shortly after the letter was published, Zola was convicted of libel - writing false statement or defamation, deliberately damaging to a person or people’s reputation - and he was sentenced to imprisonment. Zola attacked the French army, accusing them of fabricating evidence and withholding information, and he demanded that the government reopen the case.įor his courage, Zola received death threats from anti-Dreyfus, pro-military campaigners. This pro-Dreyfus paper, edited by Georges Clemenceau who was also a friend of many Impressionist artists, gave Zola the space to write a vehement declaration that began with the words “J’accuse” (meaning 'I accuse').

#Alfred dreyfus received support from who series#

This series came to a head when he wrote an open letter in January 1898, which was published on the front page of L’Aurore. He penned a series of articles in Le Figaro towards the end of 1897 in which he raised the question of Dreyfus’ innocence. To add to the war of words, Emile Zola stepped forward to defend Dreyfus. Unlike in previous political debates, the artists were not unanimous in their opinions of Dreyfus and this led to a crucial and damaging divide in the group. The Dreyfus affair was fervently debated throughout France and the strong emotions and anger of the country was echoed in Impressionist circles. Her diary has been translated into English and remains in print. From her writing, we can build up a colourful and candid image of the Impressionists at this time and their views on the Dreyfus affair. “neat ladylike leather bound volume, but untidy notes scribbled down in old exercise books, often in pencil, the presentation as spontaneous as the contents”.Īs well as documenting the pain of losing both her parents, Julie’s diary also covers the drama of the Dreyfus affair. ( Stéphane Mallarmé became her guardian and she went to live with her cousins, who were close family and close friends.)īefore her parents’ deaths, Julie had decided to start a diary, filling it with thoughts and experiences she had as a young teenager. Sadly, Julie was orphaned at the age of 16 when Morisot and Eugène Manet both died within just three years of each other.

She sat as a model for her uncle, Édouard Manet, Auguste Renoir and Morisot, and possibly for Edgar Degas as well. Degas, and to a lesser extend Renoir, were anti-Dreyfus.Įvidence later came to light that Dreyfus was not guilty and that he had been framed by top-brass within the army (with the assistance or at least knowledge of the upper echelons of the French government).īorn in 1878, Julie Manet was the daughter of Berthe Morisot and Eugène Manet.įrom an early age, Julie was conducted into the affluent circles of French artistic and literary society and she became well acquainted with many key Impressionist artists. The result of these actions was a fierce debate that overwhelmed France at the turn of the 20th century, splitting the country into an anti-Semitic, right-wing and largely Catholic camp and a left-wing, liberal camp.Ī shockwaves of the affair were felt in the impressionist circle: Monet, Cassatt, Signac and Pissarro were all pro-Dreyfus.

Following his conviction, Dreyfus was publicly degraded before a crowd shouting anti-Semitic insults, he had his insignia torn from his uniform and his sword seized and broken in front of him. In 1894, a Jewish captain in the French army was wrongly accused of passing military secrets to the Germans.Ĭaptain Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of high-treason, court-martialed and deported to solitary confinement on Devil’s Island, a penal colony off the coast of French Guiana in South America.

It also caused a schism between the impressionists who were pro- and anti-Dreyfus. The Dreyfus affair was a political scandal that rocked France between 1895-1906.