Design for a Stage Curtain 1830 - 1890

Curator: At first glance, there's a definite old-world theatrical charm! It looks like pink lemonade, but something about the drape and faded colors suggests layers of meaning. Editor: That's a lovely, summery description! Let me offer some context. This is Eugène Cicéri’s "Design for a Stage Curtain," made with watercolor and colored pencil sometime between 1830 and 1890. He’s giving us a peek behind the scenes—quite literally, in fact! Curator: Fascinating. That little architectural flourish right in the middle, surrounded by laurel, it suggests both permanence and fleeting celebration, wouldn't you agree? Perhaps of civic virtues, given its classicism. There’s a kind of wistful permanence. Editor: Yes! But also consider how stage curtains operate. The very idea of “backstage” suggests a hierarchy of labor, unseen and unrecognized, supporting spectacle and display, the physical work, the making-real, the seamstresses. Watercolors can belie their true production time; here, a kind of speed hides immense planning. Curator: Absolutely! And speaking of planning, that emblem hanging in the middle—do you think it was specific to a particular theater, perhaps carrying the symbolism of the theatrical troupe itself? Maybe a house of knowledge being guarded and celebrated? Editor: Good questions! Perhaps it signified the patron’s house; those decorative elements signal wealth, patronage, production at a grand scale. It is now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The watercolor itself becomes a valuable commodity removed from its labor-oriented use value. Curator: So, a symbol within a symbol! I love the way this work holds those tensions. The layers, the hidden narratives behind the spectacle... it almost becomes a metaphor for the theater of life itself! Editor: Right. In Cicéri's rendering, a work about display ends up illustrating social divides. Curator: What a thought-provoking design; layers that lead to all sorts of interesting places. Editor: Agreed. Seeing the mechanics beneath the performance reminds us that there's a network behind every "design".