"L'après-midi d'un faune" by Édouard Manet (1876)
Book with four wood engravings in black on various laid and wove papers, two handcolored with pink wash, rebound and housed in slipcase.
Commentary
Commentary
"L'après-midi d'un faune" by Édouard Manet (1876) invites a close look at how form and feeling work together.
The print-based method rewards close viewing, where line, texture, and contrast do most of the expressive work.
Themes to notice include wood engraving.
This piece is held in the source collection's Prints and Drawings collection.
Édouard Manet is the artist behind this work.
A useful anchor for reading the piece: Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
poetry by Stéphane Mallarmé (French, 1842-1898)
published by Alphonse Derenne (French, born 1836)
bookbinding by Jacques Anthoine Legrain (French, born 1907).
The work is cataloged within a France cultural context.
How to look at this work:
It is cataloged as wood engraving, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object.
Its medium (Book with four wood engravings in black on various laid and wove papers, two handcolored with pink wash, rebound and housed in slipcase) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances.
Its listed dimensions (Book, closed: 28.8 × 20 × 1.4 cm (11 3/8 × 7 7/8 × 9/16 in.); Book, open: 28.8 × 40.3 × 1.5 cm (11 3/8 × 15 7/8 × 5/8 in.); Slipcase: 29.2 × 20.2 × 1.4 cm (11 1/2 × 8 × 9/16 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person.
Subject cues from the catalog include wood engraving.
Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/104228
Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data
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Commentary
Commentary