Michel Ell. Des Kaisers neue Kleider. Germany 1923.
Social or political engagement?
For all their differences, these artists are mostly narrative; they leave the satire to emerge indirectly. Others depict the emperor and his flunkeys as caricatures, which is scarcely true to Andersen. Cyril Bouda’s emperor in a large Czech collection of fairy tales of 1956 has borrowed features from a fat pig, while on the other hand his lackeys are scraggy , and the officer in front has all the impeccable stupidity which belongs to this caricature type. Considerably more spiteful is a rare private edition by Michel Ell (Berlin 1923) , who in expressionistic woodcuts in the spirit of Franz Masereel displays perverted power in the faces.