Man Riding a Horse through the Air
1860–70
Medium
Charcoal, with stumping and erasing, on tan laid paper, squared in white chalk, and laid down on blue wove paper with blue fibers
Dimensions
61.5 × 47.4 cm (24 1/4 × 18 11/16 in.)
Classification
charcoal
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
111807
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Son of a locksmith, Chifflart studied in Italy from 1851 to 1856, returning to Paris as an exponent of the Romantic revival of the late 1850s. The writer Charles Baudelaire saw in Chifflart’s work a new and dynamic art of the imagination, in opposition to the rising tide of Realism. Although influential for Victor Hugo, Rodolphe Bresdin, and Odilon Redon, Chifflart was not a popular success, and his drawings are exceedingly rare as a result.