At the Ball

Félix Buhot began making etchings around 1873 and concentrated on landscapes and urban scenes. Combining different etching techniques, he was able to achieve a variety of atmospheric effects such as those in this rainy winter scene. Images like this were frequently published in the leading illustrated journals of the time and were popular with a wide readership because they captured the beauty and charm of France’s capital.

Constantin Guys was among the first generation of illustrators employed by the burgeoning newspaper industry and specialized in scenes of society life.

At the Ball belongs to the artist’s numerous sketches drawn from life that capture the customs of the upper middle class, recognizable by their black suits, top hats, ribbons, and crinolines. Guys’s talent was admired by such influential contemporaries as the poet and critic Charles Baudelaire, who declared Guys the ultimate “painter of modern life” in 1863.