The Little Cavaliers - Édouard Manet

Carter H. Harrison and Prints and Drawings Club Funds

"The Little Cavaliers" by Édouard Manet (1867/74) Etching, drypoint, roulette and bitten tone in black on ivory Japanese paper, laid down on tan wove paper (chine collé).

Commentary

"The Little Cavaliers" by Édouard Manet (1867/74) 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 etching. Thi s 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) after Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1599-1660). The work is cataloged within a France cultural context. How to look at this work: It is cataloged as etching, which gives a clue to how the museum frames the object. Its medium (Etching, drypoint, roulette and bitten tone in black on ivory Japanese paper, laid down on tan wove paper (chine collé)) affects texture, durability, and how detail reads at different distances. Its listed dimensions (Image: 24 × 38.2 cm (9 1/2 × 15 1/16 in.); Plate: 25 × 39 cm (9 7/8 × 15 3/8 in.); Primary support: 33.4 × 48.6 cm (13 3/16 × 19 3/16 in.); Secondary support: 33.7 × 49.7 cm (13 5/16 × 19 5/8 in.)) suggest how intimate or monumental it may feel in person. Subject cues from the catalog include etching. Compare this reading with the museum record at the source collection: https://www.artic.edu/artworks/84398

Sources: Art Institute of Chicago; Art Institute of Chicago / Public Records; Art Institute of Chicago Collection Data