Visual Satire Under German Censorship: The Card Game Pharo in Johann Heinrich Ramberg's Illustrations and in Contemporary Descriptions

Abstract This article examines image–text relations in German illustrations of gambling around 1800, specifically focusing on the card game Pharo and the artist Johann Heinrich Ramberg. It shows Ramberg's technique of reuse and variation as well as the degree of satire in the designs and their accompanying descriptive or fictional texts. It demonstrates that the London‐trained artist adapted the type and extent of satirical elements in the tradition of Hogarth to the publication context and the tastes of the German editors and middle‐class almanac audience. Thus, this article adds an important aspect to the study of a neglected artist, to British–German transfer of visual satire around 1800, and to illustration as translation.