The Hanging, a poster illustrating an episode of the Calas Affair according to the novel...

Siegel (affiche) Signed and dated bottom left Originally created to promote the serialised novel 'Les Drames de Toulouse' by A. Siegel, this is the second edition of the image from a pressing of 30 copies. The story is based on the 18th century Calas affair, documented by Voltaire, in which a father is falsely accused of murdering his son, who, in actuality, had committed suicide. Like he, we are just stumbling upon the gruesome image of his son dangling from a rafter, the eerie glow of a candle our only source of light. Failing to confess to the murder, the father is tortured to death. The notoriety associated with the case comes from the fact that the father was Protestant and, facing a firmly anti-Protestant judge, was told his motive in murder was to prevent his son from converting to Catholicism.