Skip to main content

Un Enfant terrible... (An unruly child...), from the series Revers des Médailles

Artist/Maker (French, 1804–1866)
Date1842
MediumLithograph
DimensionsOverall: 14 × 9 3/4 in. (35.6 × 24.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of Eugene L. Garbaty
PortfolioRevers des Médailles
Object number1951.79.4
Status
Not on view
More Information
An illustrator of children’s books, Gavarni was the father of two children of his own, to whom he was very attached. Gavarni loved the spontaneous poses and gestures of children and admired them for their disarming honesty. In this print, a boy has gotten into his father’s hair pomade, creating an enormous mess and embodying the cultural stereotype that boys are naughty and can be expected to get into trouble. The caption below the image reads: “An unruly child that someone was foolish enough to let play with a jar of hair cream for dandies.”
Exhibition History
The Human Comedy: Chronicles of 19th Century France
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 6, 2013 - December 22, 2013 )
Transformation: Images of Childhood and Adolescence
  • Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin, OH (September 1, 2015 - December 23, 2015 )
Collections
  • European