"...Happy to get away with it so cheaply." from the Little Miseries of Human Life
Medium
Wood engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 1/4 × 7 1/2 in. (28.5 × 19 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Yvonne Möen Cumerford, 1965
Accession Number
65.570.61(17)
Tags
Art Historical Context
This 1843 wood engraving by J. J. Grandville, with contributions from Paul-Emile-Daurand Forgues and Henri Fournier, belongs to the series *Little Miseries of Human Life*. The witty title, "...Happy to get away with it so cheaply," hints at the print humorous exploration of everyday social embarrassments and minor domestic mishaps involving men and women. Grandville, celebrated for his sharp caricatures and fantastical imagery, captures these fleeting frustrations with lively exaggeration typical of mid-nineteenth-century French illustration. Wood engraving was the dominant reproductive techn...