The Human Comedy: Chronicles of 19th-Century France

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Refus de l'impôt

Paul Gavarni (French, 1804–1866) Refus de l'impôt (En ménage) (Dodging the Marriage Tax), 1842 Lithograph Gift of Eugene L. Garbaty, 1951.79.157

Gavarni’s wives had ways of punishing their hus-bands for bad behavior. If his sphere of influence was the public arena, hers was the home. As the founder of one feminist newspaper discovered when she was forced to change the name of her paper, women were prohibited from using the term “politique.” Gavarni suggests that, in mar-riage, spying or withholding affection are among the “political” maneuvers available to women.