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. 4cm
width: 28. 1cm
description:
colored print
marks, inscriptions, hallmarks:
title of the work - under the image: les grisettes. (large and small outfit) the grisettes. Author inscription - below the image on the right: senefelder lith. Inscription concerning the author - under the image on the left: henry monnier
iconographic description:
three young people are talking in the street. They are two young women, grisettes, who surround a dandy. They are holding a package and a basket. 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 morals of their time often inspired the two artists in parallel on numerous subjects as we can see in the following extract: "she has too many vices and too many good qualities; she is too close to sublime asphyxiation or withering laughter; she is too beautiful and too hideous; she personifies paris too well, to which she provides toothless porters, washerwomen, sweepers, beggars, sometimes countesses impertinent, admired actresses, applauded singers; she even once gave two quasi-queens to the monarchy. Who could grasp such a proteus? she is the whole woman, less than the woman, more than the woman, a painter of manners can only render certain details, the whole is the infinite. Beautiful, fresh, but grisette, and grisette with claws, scissors, bold like a spaniard, surly like an english prude demanding her marital rights, flirtatious like a great lady, more frank and ready for anything; a real lioness coming out of the little apartment of which she had so many times dreamed: the red calico curtains, the utrecht velvet furniture, the tea table, the porcelain cabaret with painted subjects, the loveseat, the small carpet rug, the alabaster clock and the candlesticks under glass, the yellow bedroom, the soft eiderdown; in short, all the joys of the grisettes' life: the housekeeper, a former grisette herself, but a grisette with mustaches and chevrons, the show parties, the maroons at will, the silk dresses and the hats to waste: finally all the felicities calculated at the milliners' counter, minus the crew, which only appears in the imaginations of the counter like a marshal's baton in the dreams of the soldier. " [excerpt from ferragus, by honoré de balzac]
themes / subjects / places represented:
subject of society, morals, grisette
mode of acquisition: purchase
institution: maison de balzac
inventory number: bal2013. 46. Date: En 1827.
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