Down with Progress! (A bas le progrès!)

Artist Henri-Gabriel Ibels French, 1867 - 1936

Date1893

MediumColor lithograph

DimensionsOverall: 11 5/16 × 16 in. (28.7 × 40.6 cm)
Matboard: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)

ClassificationsPrints

Credit LineThe Sparling Family Collection

Object number2025.1.39

On View

On view

SignedNear bottom right corner: "H. G. Ibels"

DescriptionColor print in blue, red, and yellow, of a military procession. At center, a group of men walk in line, 5 in each row, wearing blue coats with a black belt at the waist, red pants, and a red cap. Each of them carries a long black rifle in their proper right hand. In front of the procession, the leader is dressed the same, but rather than carrying a rifle, he holds a horn up to his mouth with his proper right hand. In the bottom left corner, more men in uniform stand with their back to the viewer, facing the procession. They wear darker blue coats, and the man closest in the foreground, holds a horn up to his mouth with his proper right hand, most likely playing in response to/with the leader of the march. The overall image is not a perfect rectangle. A square has been left blank in the upper left corner, and a thin rectangle has been taken out of the upper right corner. This is because the print was used as a theater program, so the empty spaces are where the letters were going to be added.

Used for three performances of a review at the Théâtre Libre, first staged on January 16, 1893.Exhibition History"French Prints from the Tobin Sparling Collection," The Hyde Collection, Hoopes Gallery, Feb. 14-July 26, 2026.ProvenanceArmstrong Fine Art, Chicago; purchased by Tobin Sparling, Little Rock, Arkansas, September 2011; given to The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York, 2025.