Which costume is this?
I wonder the meaning of the next two cartoons
In a important dinner?
And thanks Rani for the close up of the photo, I wonder if is available the full verssion (without the missing part)
The first one is a german caricature against France in 1870.
You see Eugenie and the Maréchal Leboeuf (french general of the army and war minister, who declared war to Prussia) on a beef with Napoleon III's head.
And Leboeuf is saying, showing Napoleon III : Le boeuf, c'est lui (HE is the beef!). A wordplay about the name "Leboeuf" and the word "le boeuf" ("the beef").
That means Leboeuf and Eugenie (with her whip) are doing what they want with Napoleon III, he's stupid and manipulated by his wife and his minister.
The second one is a french caricature against Eugénie after 1870, that simply means that Eugenie was like a rose with many bees turning around her, all the bees have the heads of men of the french court, insinuating that they all were Eugenie's lovers...
The dinner is the dinner for the inauguration of the Suez Canal in Egypt.
