It is Old and Ugly..., from Le Carnaval à Paris
n.d.
Medium
Lithograph on discolored ivory wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.9 × 15.7 cm (7 7/8 × 6 3/16 in.); Sheet: 38.2 × 26 cm (15 1/16 × 10 1/4 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
159981
Art Historical Context
Paul Gavarni's *It is Old and Ugly from Le Carnaval à Paris captures the witty, satirical spirit of mid-19th-century Parisian. Gavarni (1804–1866), a master caricaturist, was renowned for his vivid illustrations in journals like *Le Charivari*, chronicling the bohemian underbelly of the July Monarchy and Second Empire. This lithograph, part of a series on the raucous Parisian Carnival, likely pokes fun at aging, fashion, or fleeting beauty amid the masked revelry—evident in its cheeky title—offering a sharp social commentary on urban excess and human vanity. Printed as a lithograph on discolo...
About the Artist
Paul Gavarni
Paul Gavarni, born Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier on January 13, 1804, in Paris to a cooper father from Burgundy and mother Marie-Monique Thiémet—whose brother, painter Guillaume Thiémet, served as his godfather—began his career far from the art world. As a youth, he worked in a machine factory and studied mechanical drawing at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in 1818, followed by evening classe...