Theater Program for Une Journee Parlementaire 1893 - 1894

Curator: So, here we have Jean-Louis Forain’s 1893 lithograph, a theater program actually, for “Une Journee Parlementaire.” The Art Institute of Chicago holds this particular print. What are your initial thoughts? Editor: Well, immediately it strikes me as satirical. The heaviness of the figure on the left, the wisps of smoke… it’s all about commentary on power and observation. Curator: Indeed. Forain was a master of capturing the subtleties of Parisian life, often with a cynical edge. I always think this piece feels intensely personal; he’s not just sketching a politician; he’s drawing out the weary soul of the Belle Epoque. Editor: I am most intrigued by his chosen method here: lithography, printing with porous limestone, using grease, acid... it suggests a mass audience. And look at the visible labour, the lines themselves--deliberate. It points to an interest in exposing these figures to the masses, not just creating a delicate artwork for the elite. Curator: The man with the pipe. It almost seems as though the program’s whole composition depends on the shape of that exhalation, which gives a whimsical mood to an otherwise dour affair. Editor: And it contrasts wonderfully with the rigidity of the policeman in the booth! Who’s watching whom? Whose labor really sustains the political charade? Curator: Perhaps that's what makes the piece so enduring. Even now, over a century later, we can find the same themes playing out on the public stage. Editor: Absolutely. The tension between visibility and power continues today, even as materials and platforms shift. The struggle of creating work—Forain literally dragging grease across stone—it echoes the very political theatre he depicts, the real work always offstage. Curator: Looking at this work today, I realize that it's less about critiquing a single politician and more about a mood that endures through time. The exhaustion that is part of public service… and private aspiration. Editor: Precisely. I was hooked by that production. So, you begin to see that what really draws the viewer in is seeing how someone turns mundane, physical substances and gestures into the work’s narrative core.