Fan
Celebrating Gioachino Rossini’s “The Barber of Seville,” this fan presents the main characters of the comic opera underneath the score for the famous aria sung by Figaro as he makes his entrance. The opera established Rossini’s international reputation, making its Paris debut in 1819 at the Théâtre-Italien, after a less auspicious debut in Rome in 1816. The fan’s designer, Fernando Coustellier, belonged to an established Parisian family of fan makers, but cultivated an association with Spain, signing and inscribing his fans in Spanish: “Fabrica de Fdo Coustellier y Cie Abanicos en Paris.” He eventually relocated his business to Valencia, a center of fan production. The small convex mirror at the end of the fan guard might have been useful for an operagoer to check her surroundings.
Artwork Details
- Title: Fan
- Maker: Fernando Coustellier y Vital (French, Paris 1785 – Valencia 1845)
- Date: Between 1816 and 1830
- Culture: French, Paris
- Medium: Hand-colored etching on paper; painted parchment (verso); ivory, silver
- Dimensions: 8 1/2 × 16 1/4 in. (21.6 × 41.3 cm)
- Classification: Fans
- Credit Line: Gift of Mrs. Thomas Hunt, 1933
- Object Number: 33.82.6
- Curatorial Department: European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
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