Portret van Catherine-Joséphine Duchesnois als Alzire in de tragedie Alzire 1823 - 1824

Alexandre-Marie Colin made this lithograph of the actress Catherine-Joséphine Duchesnois in the role of Alzire. Duchesnois was a celebrated tragedienne who performed at the Comédie-Française during the first decades of the 19th century. This print captures her playing the title role in Voltaire’s 1736 play, Alzire, which is set in colonial Peru. The play is a critique of religious fanaticism. Here, we see how costume design evokes colonial themes through its exoticism, as seen in Duchesnois's feathered headdress. The institution of the Comédie-Française and the art of lithography were themselves implicated in the social and political transformations of post-revolutionary France. Studying the play’s reception in newspapers and printed reviews, as well as archival documents from the Comédie-Française, allows us to more deeply understand the relationship between the theater, its performers, and its audience. It is in the theater, where national identity and the politics of representation intersect, that we can locate the social role of art.