Combat de Coqs 1907

Curator: Steinlen's 1907 piece, "Combat de Coqs," offers a glimpse into a world of intense rivalry, rendered in ink. It seems to come straight from the streets. Editor: It’s all elbows and angled noses, isn’t it? The mass of dark blurs for feathers, and these intense gazes of the audience—it feels...brutal, claustrophobic, somehow, like all air's been sucked out. Curator: Well, there is an awful lot happening at once! Cockfighting, of course, has long served as a potent symbol across cultures... an analogy to so many forms of aggressive behavior, from street brawls to geopolitical skirmishes. Editor: Exactly, the cocks almost vanish. The real drama isn’t down in the ring, it’s in the faces circling it, almost animalistic themselves with the caps and smoke. There is a palpable atmosphere! Almost sinister! Is that light from the heavens, or… the authorities coming? Curator: Hah, the ever-present threat! Perhaps. And the composition itself reflects this tension, wouldn't you say? The way the figures press in, blurring the lines, echoing the frenzied energy of the fight... notice the repeating triangular forms in the men's caps, the chicken's stance, mirrored down to the form in the lower right... I read that as raw immediacy! Editor: It makes you wonder about who participates and spectates in such a violent display. Is Steinlen revealing more than we want to see of our species, stripped down, driven to watch bloodshed as entertainment? Makes me ask myself whether this crowd might exist today. Curator: Possibly changed the suits and eliminated the arena, maybe. Steinlen’s images frequently confronted social realities. This raw immediacy isn't just aesthetic—it’s a punch to the gut, and a question, hanging in the smoky air, much like the lithographic texture we’re examining right now. Editor: Agreed. It’s a haunting reminder that some primal urges linger not so far beneath the surface. An ink sketch—as simple as that is—manages to be profoundly unsettling.