Crispin and Scapin 1865

Honoré Daumier made this painting of Crispin and Scapin in France, using oil paint. These characters originated in the Italian commedia dell'arte but are best known from Molière's play "Les Fourberies de Scapin." Daumier’s figures show the darker side of theater and hint at the way that the stage can be used to manipulate an audience. Daumier’s painting simplifies the stage to a basic backdrop and focuses on the bodies of the characters and their scheming faces. His painterly style, with visible brushstrokes and a lack of precise detail, lends a sense of immediacy to the image. It’s as if we've caught Crispin and Scapin in a candid moment of plotting. As historians, we can dig into theater archives and reviews to discover how actors of the time might have interpreted these roles. Seeing art as bound to the social and institutional conditions of its making helps us understand its historical meaning.