Author(s):
monnier, henry bonaventure (paris, 07–06–1799 - paris, 03–01–1877 — 3–6–1877), designer-lithographer
delpech, françois seraphin (orléans, 1778 - 1825), printer
other title: administrative morals (series title)
dating in century: 19th century
type(s) of object(s): graphic arts, print
name(s): print
materials and techniques: vellum paper, watercolor, lithography
dimensions - artwork:
height: 26. 1cm
width: 35cm
dimensions - image:
height: 16. 7cm
width: 16. 5cm
dimensions - mounting:
height: 50cm
width: 40cm
description:
colored print
marks, inscriptions, hallmarks:
title of the work - above the image: administrative morals
legend - under the image: half past ten / opening of drawers, special conventions. Inscription concerning the author - under the lower left image: henry monnier
registration concerning the test - under the lower right image: i. Lith de delpech
iconographic description:
four employees are sitting and busy in a small office. Two are at their work table, pen in hand. Two, face to face, are in full discussion. A small dog sleeps in the foreground. The room is furnished with secretaries, an archive library, a cabinet with drawers. 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 pension book had just been published, rabourdin saw there an office boy registered for a retirement higher than that of the old colonels riddled with wounds. The history of the bureaucracy could be read there in its entirety. Another plague generated by modern morals, and which he counted among the causes of this secret demoralization: the administration in paris has no real subordination, there reigns complete equality between the head of an important division and the last expeditionary: one is also learned than the other in an arena where the work is passed on to each other. The employees judge each other without any respect. The instruction, also dispensed without measure to the masses, leads the son of a ministry janitor to pronounce on the fate of a man of merit or of a great owner for whom his father has pulled the door cord. The latest arrival can therefore fight with the oldest. Tilbury who carries a pretty woman to whom he indicates by a movement of his whip the poor father of the family on foot, saying: there is my leader! [excerpt from the employees or the superior woman, by honoré de balzac]
themes / subjects / places represented:
social subject, morals, office worker, dog, office, feather, frying pan
institution: maison de balzac
inventory number: bal91. 28. Date: Unknown.
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