A small boy from boarding-school said that you were apostate... 1841

Curator: This lithograph is by Paul Gavarni, born in 1804. The piece is titled "A small boy from boarding-school said that you were apostate..." Editor: It's immediately intimate, yet melancholy. The line work is scratchy, creating this sense of quiet desperation. There's a heaviness. Curator: The image presents a poignant symbol of strained paternal relations. The child's gesture reads like a physical burden, almost absorbing the father's energy. Editor: Exactly! It’s this odd posture—almost symbiotic. Like the boy is both clinging and suffocating him at the same time. There’s a real tension there. Curator: And the title adds another layer. Apostasy represents the ultimate betrayal, a symbolic death of shared belief. Is the child truly accusing the father, or merely parroting words? Editor: I think the beauty lies in the uncertainty. It captures a feeling, an unnameable ache, that resonates even now. Curator: I agree. The work speaks to the complexities inherent in legacy, and the inherited burdens of belief.