Le général et son cheval : figures du pouvoir militaire en démocratie, à l’exemple de la Suisse

Abstract

In the context of an interdisciplinary seminar on history and art history at the University of Lausanne, we look at the ‘cultures of war’ in Switzerland and Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The question is raised, notably, as to the nature of these — if indeed they exist — in a country that has not seen large-scale military operations. Generals Ulrich Wille and Henri Guisan were two major figures in the public arena and the Swiss military. Besides the fact that they headed the Swiss army during World Wars I and II, Wille and Guisan represented an institution that was to play an ideological role inversely proportional to its strategic and military function. The portrayal of the general harks back to pictorial genres from Antiquity to the Galerie des Batailles at the Château de Versailles. How does the Swiss case fit into this history, and what functions did the portrayals of Wille and Guisan serve in the context in which they emerged? What position or attitude did the generals of this neutral, or non-belligerent, country adopt that might correspond to their very singular military status, and how did they imagine their relations with the political authority? The emblematic role of the horse in the two world wars and the symbolical functions of the equestrian portrait as a figure of military power are at the heart of this analysis touching on both history and the history of art.

Keywords

• armée
• caricature
• censure
• Général
• Guillaume-Henri Dufour
• Henri Guisan