Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris: Cemetery 1830 - 1890

This stage set design was made by Eugène Cicéri for the Paris Opéra using pencil and paper. The grid and red notations across the top give a sense of the labour involved in this production; these were essentially the coordinates for a team of scenic painters, who would have taken Cicéri’s concept and executed it on a massive scale. The drawing itself is relatively simple in terms of its materiality. Yet its real substance lies in its capacity to instruct. This was not simply an artwork, but a blueprint that would become the basis for many hours of work for other people. Consider the craft involved in translating a sketch into a full-scale backdrop. This involved not only technical skill, but a deep understanding of theatrical illusion. In that sense, Cicéri’s design, humble as it may seem, represents the convergence of artistic vision and collective labour. It asks us to think about the immense amount of work that goes into a cultural experience, most of which goes unseen.