Art Institute of Chicago

Sheet of Skteches

Denis Auguste Marie Raffet

Date

1829

Medium

Etching on cream chine, laid down 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 semi-nostalgic, 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 Honorè de Balzac.

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