Les maris me font toujours rire: Je suis le mari de M'ame Jolibiais
1853
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 21.9 × 18.6 cm (8 5/8 × 7 3/8 in.); Sheet: 36.5 × 26.8 cm (14 3/8 × 10 9/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
27493
Art Historical Context
Paul Gavarni's *Les maris me font toujours: Je suis le mari M'ame Jolibiais* (1853) is a delightful lithograph capturing the sharp wit of mid-19th-century Parisian social satire. Gavarni, a leading French caricaturist of the Romantic era, specialized in humorous vignettes that poked fun at bourgeois life, marriage, and gender dynamics. The title, translating to "Hus always make me laugh: am the husband of Mme Jolibiais," suggests a comical domestic scene, likely featuring aless husband and his spirited wife, reflecting the era's growing fascination with witty, relatable everyday follies amid F...
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...