Chez les satisfaits - La concierge m'a dit ... 

Jean-Louis Forain sketched this drawing, *Chez les satisfaits - La concierge m'a dit...*, using graphite, pen, and ink with watercolor washes. Reflecting the social stratification of late 19th-century Paris, this image presents a dialogue, heavy with judgement, between two women of different classes. The contrast in their attire and posture speaks volumes about their respective roles: the younger woman, likely a bourgeois wife, is draped in a dressing gown, absorbed in her washing. The concierge is in uniform, stern, holding a bottle, possibly hinting at the hardships of her labor. Forain, an observer of Parisian life, captures a charged moment of class and gender dynamics, laden with the gossip and scrutiny that often defined such interactions. "The concierge told me that while staying, Monsieur cries his eyes out… -It serves him right when one doesn’t do the cleaning themselves". The drawing reveals how women were entangled in the performance and maintenance of social hierarchies. This is a tableau of satisfaction steeped in the quiet dramas of everyday life, a commentary on the emotional labor often unseen and unheard.