The Gallic Cock–Long Live the Czar!

When the Paris Salons first admitted photography in 1859, it was a blow to the original print. Félix Bracquemond countered by cofounding the Society of Etchers in 1861 and issuing albums of original etchings. For L'Estampe originale a generation later, Bracquemond celebrated the unlikely alliance between France and Russia, finalized in 1894. The French were elated to have Czar Alexander III's protection against Germany. Here the rooster, symbol of French nationalism, crows about the Russian flotilla visiting the French Mediterranean in 1893.