Art Institute of Chicago

Sheet of Sketches

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet (French, 1804-1860)

Date

1829

Medium

Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

As a pioneer of battle vignettes, Denis-Auguste-Marie Raffet depicted many military scenes in sketchbooklike compositions. He began to publish lithographs in 1826, and Sheet of Sketches was one of his early works. This sheet has a seminostalgic, satirical tone, with details of a frantic crowd cheering for a duel between knights and a scene of ritualistic decapitation. Raffet’s lithographs inspired generations of artists and writers, including Honoré de Balzac.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.