Emploi d'une grande partie de l'existence bureaucratique - Scene a public office, BAL2013.33, En 1827

Author(s): monnier, henry bonaventure (paris, 07–06–1799 - paris, 03–01–1877 — 3–6–1877), designer senefelder et cie, designer-lithographer production date: in 1827 dating in century: 19th century type(s) of object(s): graphic arts, print name(s): print materials and techniques: lithography, vellum paper, watercolor dimensions - artwork: height: 20. 7cm width: 26cm description: colored print marks, inscriptions, hallmarks: title of the work - under the image: employment of a large part of bureaucratic existence author inscription - below the image on the right: senefelder lith. Inscription concerning the author - under the image on the left: henry monnier watermark - "jw" iconographic description: interior of an office where four employees are busy idly. One sits at his desk, visor on his head and glasses on his nose, has his writing pen in hand, but he procrastinates by rocking in his chair. Another, standing, looks at him, hands behind his back. The walls are covered with file shelves and the stove pipe sits in the center of the room. Actor, playwright and designer, henry monnier helped illustrate la comédie humaine. His engravings of administrative morals, and especially his play scenes from bureaucratic life, clearly inspired balzac for his novel la femme supérieure, renamed les employés. The same references to the customs of their time often inspired the two artists in parallel on numerous subjects as we can see in the following extract: "tiled like the corridor and hung with mean paper, the room where the office boy sits is furnished with a stove, a large black table, feathers, inkwell, sometimes a fountain, finally benches without mats for the public cranes' feet; but the office boy, seated in a good armchair, rests the his on a doormat. The employees' office is a large, more or less light room, rarely floored. " [extract from les employés, by honoré de balzac] themes / subjects / places represented: social subject, morals, office worker, stove, feather mode of acquisition: purchase institution: maison de balzac inventory number: bal2013. 33. Date: En 1827.