"The Dreyfus affair ended today" - a special issue of the French weekly "Illustrated Life" - October 1899

"The Dreyfus affair ended today" - a special issue of the French weekly "Illustrated Life" - October 1899

A special issue of the French LA VIE ILLUSTREE whose correspondents met Dreyfus about two weeks after his final acquittal in the retrial in Rennes and published rare photographs of Alfred Dreyfus for the first time since his release, happy and content, in the Carpathian holiday villa. October 6, 1899.

On the title page is a rare photograph of Dreyfus and his children in the courtyard of Valberg's villa in the Carpathians. The photograph shows Dreyfus relaxed and satisfied after his final acquittal - this photograph, as well as the photographs that appear on the interior pages, were taken by the photographer of the newspaper Charles Gerschel on September 27 about a week after Dreyfus received a final pardon in the retrial in Berne. These photographs are the first in which Dreyfus was photographed after his acquittal in such a way that he collaborates with the photographer and proactively sets himself up to be photographed.

The main article written by Henri de Weindel in which he summarizes the affair begins with the words: "Today, the story of Dreyfus, at least in its public form, has come to an end. Its main hero receives clemency. He returned to the bosom of his family and resides with them in peace... Prince Monako invited the former captain to stay at his palace in Isna. Dreyfus refused just as he refused all the offers that came to him..." In the main article on Dreyfus, which presents him as the great victor of the affair, it is written that after he was acquitted, his brother came to release him from prison, was close to him and did not leave even for a moment, the two went to rest in the villa of Will Marie together with his wife and children.

The newspaper reports that while Dreyfus was in the villa, the house-photographer of the newspaper Charles Gerschel was one of the few allowed to enter the villa surrounded by high walls, where Dreyfus was staying and asked for privacy, to rest, and rarely, Dreyfus agreed to make himself available for three initiated photographs (one appears on the title page of the issue - Dreyfus with his children, and the other two on the interior pages). The writer also describes the pleasant welcome in which Lucie Dreyfus received the newspaper's photographer. The issue concludes that the affair that made "endless noise has come to an end."

The weekly La Vie illustrée is a french illustrated issue that was founded in October 1898 and closed in 1911 and dealt mainly with news in France and around the world. It was a weekly that made extensive use of photographs as part of its coverage of current events. The weekly was published every Thursday and cost 30 cents. Over the years, the newspaper published several shocking photographs, which drew quite a bit of criticism from the French public.

16 pages. 35 cm. Few stains. Good condition.