Les Fauteuils d'orchestre
Medium
wood engraving
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Gift of Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow
Accession Number
1978.82.37
Art Historical Context
**Les Fauteuils d'Orchestre** (The Orchestra Stalls), a wood engraving created in 1878 by Augusteère after Honoré Daier, offers a vivid glimpse into 19th-century Parisian theater. Daumier, a pioneering French caricaturist and Realist artist (1808–1879), was renowned for sharp social commentaries on bourgeois society. This work captures the lively atmosphere of the orchestra seats—prime spots for the elite—filled with spectators in period attire, their expressions blending anticipation and distraction amid the buzz of performance. Wood engraving, the medium here, was a key technique of the era...