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Lemercier et Cie; printer; France
Overview
Paul Gavarni, pseudonym of Hippolyte-Guillaume-Sulpice Chevalier (1804-1866), was a French lithographer and painter whose work is enjoyable and important for its polished wit, cultured observation and the panorama it presents of the life of his time.
About 1831 Gavarni began publishing his scenes of everyday contemporary life, and praise from writers such as Honoré de Balzac gained him popularity. In 1833 he began publication of the Journal of High Society, which failed after 18 numbers and was responsible for Gavarni's imprisonment for debt in 1835 for almost a year. From 1839 to 1846 he issued his famous series Les Lorettes, Les Débardeurs, and Les Fourberies de femmes (The Deceit of Women). After the death of his mother and the end of his marriage, about 1845, his style changed, deepening in seriousness and subtlety. Like his contemporary and rival, Honoré Daumier, with whom he is frequently and sometimes a little unfairly compared, he was also a regular contributor to Le Charivari.
Enhanced by his deeper insight into human nature, Gavarni's compositions of this time ironically depict the grotesque sides of family life and generally bear the stamp of a bitter philosophy. In 1847 he went to London, and he spent his time in England observing the life of the poor and producing some of his most compelling work. After his return to Paris he devoted more time to watercolour and in 1851 met the Goncourt brothers, who had long been his admirers; their book Gavarni: The Man and the Work appeared in 1873. In mid-century, Gavarni took up lithography, and in the periodical Paris he brought forth another of his great series, Masques et visages (1852-53). At the time of his death he was working in etching, lithography, and a new process, electric engraving, as well as scientific experiments. Like many contemporaries, he was also captivated by ballooning and its exciting potential as a flight mode.
In 1857-1858 Gavarni published in one book 100 new lithographs in two series, Par-Ci, Par-La et Physionomies Parisiennes (Here and there, and Parisian aspects); this print comes from the latter series. More merciful and less preoccupied with the ugly and grotesque than Daumier, Gavarni presents here a full-length image of an impoverished woman standing and facing right, wearing a shawl and a loosely-tied headdress and carrying a flat basket of lemons. She looks disconsolately downwards, towards her bitter merchandise. The bitterness extends to the incription, which translates as 'Lemonade isn't something that she likes'.
See: Britannica.com, 'Paul Gavarni. French Artist', https://www.britannica.com/biography/Paul-Gavarni
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2018