Leon Gambetta

Title

Leon Gambetta

Artist

Dorothy Tennant

Lent By

the artist

Catalog Number

43

Catalog Page

7

Catalog Description

Gambetta, who more than any other man was the founder of the present French Republic, was a native of Cahors, in the South of France, and his fiery southern temperament may be seen in his face. In this portrait he is standing with folded arms in the "tribune," or platform, in the French Chamber of Deputies, from which members have to speak. There is a glass of water before him, about which there is a story told, which well illustrates the effect of his oratory. On one occasion he knocked a glass of water, with a seep of the hand, off the ledge of the tribune on to the head of a servant of the House sitting underneath. "In the case of an ordinary speaker this must have provoked considerable laughter, but the deputies were so thoroughly under the spell of Gambetta's eloquence, that there was hardly a smile and no interruption at all, as the victim resignedly wiped his head."