Le cabinet particulier (3e planche) (The Private Room) (third plate)
c. 1893
Medium
lithograph on wove Arches vellum paper
Dimensions
image: 27.5 × 38.1 cm (10 13/16 × 15 in.) sheet: 37 × 50.7 cm (14 9/16 × 19 15/16 in.)
Classification
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1943.3.3843
Art Historical Context
Jean-Louis Forain's *Le cabinet particulier (3 planche)* (The Private Room, third plate), created around 1893, captures the shadowy underbelly of fin-de-siècle Parisian nightlife. master of social satire influenced by Impressionism and Realism, Forain—often compared to Edgar Degas—frequently depicted theaters, cafés, and the demi-monde. This lithograph, part of a series, likely portrays an intimate, clandestine dining room scene, evoking the era's blend of bourgeois indulgence and moral ambiguity, where such "private cabinets" in restaurants were notorious venues for assignations. Printed on ...
About the Artist
Jean-Louis Forain
Jean-Louis Forain was born Louis Henri Forain on October 23, 1852, in Reims, France, to a family of modest means; his father painted ornamental signs. The family relocated to Paris when he was eight, where young Forain developed a passion for drawing inspired by the sculptures of Reims Cathedral and the masters at the Louvre, which he began copying at age fourteen. He received drawing lessons from...