Caricature of a Man with a Big Cigar
1855/56
Black and red chalk, with touches of colored chalks, on blue wove paper (discolored to blue-gray), laid down on cream wove paper, laid down on blue wove paper; 598 × 385 mm (primary/secondary/tertiary supports)
The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection, 1933.890
Claude Monet created Man with a Big Cigar using black and red chalk, with touches of white, pink, peach, yellow ocher, and dark-brown chalks on a slightly textured, blue wove paper that has discolored to blue-gray. The paper color provides a middle tone for the composition, with touches of white chalk used to create the man’s shirt and highlights on his shoes. It appears that the artist worked out the figure first with light, quick strokes of black chalk, followed by darker, broader lines to more fully establish the body. In this work, Monet experiments with color in the face of the figure. Various colors of pastel were used to carefully model the man’s face and to create passages of tone in his face and hair. Shadows were established in the figure’s body and hat using dark, thick strokes of black chalk.
O.M. (recto, lower left corner, in black chalk).
Blue-gray, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper.1
Nonuniform with many wood and fiber inclusions. Under magnification the fibers appear to be an amalgamation of dark-and light-blue fibers.
Even.
598 × 385 mm
Cream, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper (estimated).2
Blue, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper.3
No artistic surface alterations or coatings are visible in normal conditions, under UV illumination, or under magnification. Under UV illumination, there is a pale-yellow visible-light fluorescence overall on the paper surface that is characteristic of a light gelatin surface sizing.
The composition was drawn using the tip of the black chalk to softly establish the outline and the form of the figure. Rather than developing the figure’s head in black chalk, the artist used various colored chalks (red, white, pink, peach, yellow ocher, and dark brown) to define the facial features. This is most clearly seen along the nose and ears of the subject, which lack a black chalk outline. The tip or edge of the colored chalks were used to draw diagonal strokes that give tonal effects. White chalk rendering the cigar smoke is visible under UV illumination.
The man’s body is executed with the tip or edge of the black chalk. Faint, gestural lines were used to create the initial form, over which darker, broader strokes were drawn. The pant legs are shaded in overall using the side of the chalk and do not have dark, broad outlines; dark strokes of the chalk were reserved to create shadows. The chair is faintly sketched in with dark strokes along the legs and back. The artist used touches of white chalk to highlight areas such as the figure’s collar, shirt, and shoes.
The composition was drawn directly onto the paper support. There is minor reworking along the back of the head. This area appears to have a faint amount of smudged black chalk embedded in the paper fibers, as seen under magnification, and the outline was brought nearer to the neck and jaw.
No fixatives or coatings are visible in normal conditions, under UV illumination, or under magnification.
The drawing is in very good condition. The paper has faded overall; it was once much bluer as evidenced by the large blue spot to the left of the sitter’s chest. There are a few golden-brown foxing spots throughout. There are no tears or losses noted. The sheet has several horizontal tightly repeating undulations along the left edge. There is a horizontal line running along the width of the sheet located 238 mm from the top edge. There is a small horizontal line, 139 mm long, just above the horizontal line that runs the width of the sheet. Folds or creases from the secondary or tertiary supports may have caused these two horizontal lines to be visible in the primary support.
Dawn Jaros
Alfred Dusseuil (1878–1927), Paris.4
Sold by Henri Cottereau, Paris, to Carter H. Harrison (1860–1953), Chicago, winter 1927–28.5
Given by Carter H. Harrison to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1933.
Art Institute of Chicago, The Carter H. Harrison Memorial Exhibition, Nov. 19, 1954–Feb. 1, 1955, checklist no. 28.
Hugh Edwards, “The Caricatures of Claude Monet,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 37, 1 (Jan. 1943), p. 71.
Raymond Cogniat, Monet and His World (Viking, 1966), pp. 10 (ill.), 131.
Charles Merrill Mount, Monet, A Biography (Simon & Schuster, 1966), p. 396.
Pierre Georgel, “Monet, Bruyas, Vacquerie et le Panthéon Nadar,” Gazette des beaux-arts 72 (Dec. 1968), p. 331.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet (Fratelli Fabbri, 1971), p. 93 (ill.), no. 54.
Rodolphe Walter, “Claude Monet as a Caricaturist: A Clandestine Apprenticeship,” trans. Eric Young, Apollo 103 (June 1976), p. 489.
Harold Joachim and Sandra Haller Olsen, French Drawings and Sketchbooks of the Nineteenth Century, vol. 2 (University of Chicago Press, 1979), pp. 71–72, no. 4B7.
Daniel Wildenstein, Claude Monet: Catalogue raisonné, vol. 5, Supplément aux peintures: Dessins; Pastels; Index (Wildenstein Institute, 1991), p. 144, no. D490 (ill.).
Ann Waldron, Claude Monet: First Impressions (Abrams, 1991), pp. 8 (ill.), 90.
Stamp
Location: center
Method: brown ink
Content: The Art / Institute of / Chicago
Mark
Location: lower left edge
Method: graphite
Content: 33.890
Paper support characteristics identified.
Paper mold characteristics identified.
Light-yellow fluorescence observed throughout from the gelatin sizing. The white chalk from the smoking cigar is more visible.
Media type/application identified.
The image inventory compiles records of all known images of the artwork on file in the Imaging Department and in the conservation and curatorial files in the Department of Prints and Drawings at the Art Institute of Chicago (fig. 4.1).
cat. 4 Caricature of a Man with a Big Cigar, 1855/56.
Location/Negative # | Format | Purpose | Date | Lighting, Notes |
D14446 | Color slide |
| Unknown | Copy of E29929 |
C17320 | 8 × 10 negative |
| c. 1944 |
|
E29929 | CT |
| Nov. 7, 1994 |
|
PD_21210 | Digital | Rapid imaging | Dec. 8, 2008 |
|
G43497 | Digital | OSCI | Oct. 25, 2013 |
|