Author(s):
monnier, henry bonaventure (paris, 07–06–1799 - paris, 03–01–1877 — 3–6–1877), designer
bernard, charles louis (paris, 29–06–1769 - paris, 11–09–1848), designer-lithographer
giraldon and bovinet, editor
other title: recreation (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: 23cm
width: 31. 4cm
dimensions - picture:
height: 13. 7cm
width: 14. 8cm
description:
colored print
marks, inscriptions, hallmarks:
wet stamp - t. H. : monogram a m and 2 r next to each other?
number - above the image on the right: pl. 14
title of the work - above the image: recreations
caption - in the image, bottom: interior of a workshop
inscription concerning the author - under the image on the left: henry monnier under the image on the right: lith de bernard
registration concerning the test - under the image on the right: published by giraldon bovinet, passage vivienne, n°26
iconographic description:
in an artist's studio, two models, a man on the left and a young woman on the right, wait patiently seated on either side of a painter and his large easel. In the background, a shelf is covered with plaster models (bust, leg, putti, nudes). The young woman is sewing, the man is smoking a pipe with a very long handle. The painter, standing in front of his easel with his back to him, we can see his sketch, a mythological composition showing a wise man with a white beard and a young lady with a bare chest. 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: "if it is a painting, the characters it represents seem and speak and walk: the shadow becomes shadow, the day is day, the flesh is alive, the eyes move, the blood flows in the veins, and the fabrics shimmer. The imagination helps to see the naturalness of each detail and sees only the beauties of at this time, illusion reigns despotically: perhaps it rises with the night? isn't illusion for thought a kind of night that we furnish with dreams? illusion then spreads its wings, it carries the soul into the world of fantasies, a world fertile in voluptuous caprices and where the artist forgets the positive world, the day before and the next day, the future, even its miseries, the good ones as well. The bad ones at this hour of magic, a young painter, a man of talent, and who in art only saw art itself, had climbed onto the double ladder which he used to paint a large, high canvas almost finished. There, criticizing himself, admiring himself with good faith, swimming in his thoughts, he lost himself in one of those meditations which delight the soul and grow it, caress it and console it. His reverie undoubtedly lasted a long time. " [extract from la bourse, by honoré de balzac]
themes / subjects / places represented:
subject of society, morals, artist's studio, model, pipe, sewing and needlework
institution: maison de balzac
inventory number: bal91. 57. Date: Unknown.
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