Polichinelle

Artist Edouard Manet (French, 1832 - 1883)

Date1874

MediumSeven-color crayon lithograph with scraping on white wove paper

DimensionsImage: 16 3/4 × 12 3/16 inches (42.55 × 30.96 cm)
Sheet: 21 7/8 × 14 3/16 inches (55.56 × 36.04 cm)

Credit LinePurchase: Nelson Gallery Foundation

Object numberF87-9

On View

Not on view

Collections

Prints

Terms

Exhibition History

All the World’s a Stage: Images of Theatre and Design,The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 16–July 11, 2010; February 07–August 05, 2018, no cat.

Gallery Label

From an early age Edouard Manet was fascinated by the world of Parisian theater and masked balls. This richly colorful image shows Polichinelle, a character from the commedia dell'arte often associated with deceit and duplicity. Manet harbored liberal political sympathies, and in this political satire he represents the mustachioed president of the Third Republic, Marshall MacMahon, as Polichinelle. MacMahon had brutally repressed the Paris Commune in 1871 and earned the dubious nickname of "Marshall Baton" for his coercive measures. Here he carries the baton associated with the Polichinelle character, who is perhaps more familiar to an English-speaking audience in his derivative of Punch, also known for using his baton at every opportunity.

Provenance

With Margo Pollins Schab, Inc., New York, June 15, 1987;

Purchased from Margo Pollins Schab, Inc. by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1987.

Published References

Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Manet, graveur et lithographe(Paris: Loys Delteil, 1906), no. 87.

Marcel Guérin, L’Œuvre gravé de Manet (Paris: Floury, 1944; repr. New York: Da Capo Press, 1969), no. 79.

Jean C. Harris, Edouard Manet: Graphic Works; a definitive catalogue raisonné (New York: Collectors Editions, 1970), no. 87.

George L. McKenna, Prints, 1460–1995: The Collections of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO: The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 297, as Le Polichinelle .

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