“Les Petites Ouvrières” from ‘Dans La Vie’
Here’s a little glimpse of Parisian life at the turn of the 20th century from a man who loved cats.
This charcoal, pencil, and watercolor on paper drawing is by the Swiss Art Nouveau artist, Théophile Steinlen. It is captioned “Il n’y est pas! Sûr c’est un lapin! il devait me donner un louis aujourd’hui”. This illustration is located within the chapter titled “Les Petites Ouvrières”, or “The Little Workers”.
This illustration is from Steinlen’s book, Dans La Vie, which was first published in 1901 in Paris by Sevin et Rey. Dans La Vie (‘In the Life’) is an art book by Théophile Steinlen that contains 99 captioned color plates, a lithograph cover, and a black and white portrait of Steinlein himself.
This book is a collection of some of his magazine illustrations of city life in the latter part of the 19th century. In them, Steinlen depicts the more colorful side of Parisian life, including prostitutes, beggars, lovers, and other sundry characters. The chapter names in the book sort of explain it all, and include “Lovers”, “Dances and Such”, “The Workers”, “The Rascals”, “The Down and Out”, “The Little Workers”, and “Pimps and Prostitutes”.
For more on Théophile Steinlen, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
You can learn about different art movements here.
