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Secondary sourcePainting1904

Portrait of Montesquieu in Le Tour de la France par deux enfants

Perot · 1904

An engraved portrait of Montesquieu from a widely used French school reader of 1904, presenting him as a regional great man.

This schoolbook portrait shows how the Third Republic taught generations of children to remember Montesquieu.

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Black-and-white engraved portrait of a man with short wavy hair, seen from the shoulders up, turned slightly to the left, wearing a dark collar. The signature 'PEROT' appears at the bottom left. Cross-hatched background.
Perot, portrait of Montesquieu, in Le Tour de la France par deux enfants, 1904 edition.

About this source

What it is

This engraved portrait, signed by Perot, appeared in the 1904 edition of Le Tour de la France par deux enfants, a school reader written by "G. Bruno" used across France under the Third Republic. It identifies Montesquieu by his birth and death near Bordeaux.

Why it matters

This image shows how later generations remembered Montesquieu not just as a philosopher but as a symbol of regional pride from Gironde. Mass-produced school textbooks like this one shaped how millions of French children learned about national history and its great figures.

Look closer

  • Why might a school textbook choose to present Montesquieu as a local hero rather than focus on his ideas?
  • What does the simple caption tell you, and what does it leave out about his work?
  • How might a portrait made over a century after someone's death differ from one made during their lifetime?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Baron de Montesquieu on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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