Sheet of Skteches

Discussion

FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

As a pioneer of battle vignettes, Denis-Auguste-Marie Raffet depicted many military scenes in sketchbooklike compositions. He began to publish lithographs in 1826, and Sheet of Sketches was one of his early works. This sheet has a semi-nostalgic, satirical tone, with details of a frantic crowd cheering for a duel between knights and a scene of ritualistic decapitation. Raffet’s lithographs inspired generations of artists and writers, including Honorè de Balzac.

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