Les-Parents-Terribles series: Come, come a ball's always the same
1853
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.4 × 16.2 cm (7 11/16 × 6 7/16 in.); Sheet: 35.9 × 27.1 cm (14 3/16 × 10 11/16 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
10967
Art Historical Context
Paul Gavarni's *Les Parents Terribles* series, exemplified by this 1853 lithograph titledCome, come a ball's always the same*, captures the witty social satire that defined the French artist's career. Gavarni, a master illustrator active in mid-19th-century Paris was renowned for his sharp observations of bourgeois life, often published in periodicals like *Le Charivari*. This print belongs to a series poking fun at overbearing or out-of-touch parents clashing with their youthful offspring, reflecting the generational tensions of France's Second Empire era—a time of rapid urbanization, lavish ...
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...