Design for a Stage Set 1830 - 1890

Eugène Cicéri designed this stage set, using graphite and watercolor on paper. The somber palette of greys and browns evokes a mysterious, possibly gothic, sensibility. We see a landscape design with a large, stylized tree dominating the composition. The meticulous grid-like structure underlying the artwork is reminiscent of structuralist approaches to art. Here, the visible grid subverts traditional perspective, flattening the visual space and highlighting the artificiality inherent in stage design. This grid destabilizes any illusion of depth. The deliberate voids in the tree invite the viewer to consider absence as much as presence, prompting a semiotic reading where what is left out is as important as what is included. Consider how Cicéri uses the formal elements not just to depict a landscape, but to deconstruct and re-present it as a constructed space for theatrical illusion. It invites ongoing examination and questioning.