Les Partageuses: Thursday you dined at Vachette's
1853
Medium
Lithograph in black on cream wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 19.2 × 16.1 cm (7 9/16 × 6 3/8 in.); Sheet: 36 × 27.8 cm (14 3/16 × 11 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
11132
Art Historical Context
In the Prints and Drawings department of the Institute of Chicago, Paularni's 1853 lithograph *Les Partageuses: Thursday you dined at Vtte's* captures the witty, satirical spirit of mid-19th Parisian life. Rendered in black ink on cream wove paper, the intimate image measures just 19.2 × 16.1 cm, while the full sheet spans 36 × 27.8 cm—perfect for affordable distribution in journals and albums. Gavarni, a leading French caricaturist (1804–1866), excelled in lithography, a technique pioneered in the early 1800s that allowed artists to draw directly on stone for crisp, reproducible lines and su...
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...