La Vie de Monsieur Quelconque (The Life of Mister Ordinary)
René-Georges Hermann-Paul French
Not on view
One of two series produced by Hermann-Paul under the ironic heading of "The Great Spectacles of Nature," the suite of ten prints follows the life cycle of the average bourgeois Frenchman in the last decade of the nineteenth century. Between birth and death, he falls in love twice; fulfills his patriotic and civic duties; is decorated and celebrated by his friends; enters public service to appear in official ceremonies; then falls ill. With this portfolio, Hermann-Paul established his reputation as a talented lithographer and biting satirist. Borrowing the language of the natural scientist, he mocks the customs and morals of his contemporaries with his caricatural style.
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