"He buys the right to defeat me at his ease with a successful shot." from the Little Miseries of Human Life 1843

This print, "He buys the right to defeat me at his ease with a successful shot," was made in France by J. J. Grandville in the 1840s. As part of a series called "Little Miseries of Human Life," Grandville explores the everyday frustrations of bourgeois existence in 19th-century Paris. Here, we see a scene set in a smoke-filled billiard hall. A man, watched by onlookers, is about to take a shot, while another man holds up a sign, perhaps indicating the stakes or rules of the game. This print tells us much about the social life of the time. Billiard halls were a common gathering place for men of the middle class, and the game itself was a microcosm of social competition. Grandville’s satirical lens highlights the anxieties and absurdities of this world, the pressures of performance, and the ever-present threat of defeat. To fully understand Grandville’s art, one might consult periodicals of the time, social histories of Paris, and studies of visual culture and the rise of the middle class. These resources reveal how Grandville used his art to comment on the shifting social structures of his day.