Sujet

Old Man Before a Prie-Dieu, 1832. Creator: Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet.

Légende

Old Man Before a Prie-Dieu, 1832. Perhaps the solemn mood of the image relates to the devastating cholera epidemic that swept France in 1832, killing 18,000, mostly poor, Parisians. The central character has placed his walking stick against the prie-dieu on which he leans in front of a side altar in a medieval church. His hair is wild and ungroomed, and his dark wool overcoat, breeches, and silver buckled shoes are worn and unkempt, identifying him as an indigent aristocrat. His piety unites him with the bearded vagabond on the left, who kneels nearly prostrate to join in prayer at the side altar. In the background, a large congregation, including a Norman identifiable by her bonnet, a balding man, and a child, stands and faces the high altar. In contrast to the pious environment of the church, a shoeless street urchin of eight or nine leans in boredom against a column to the right of the aristocrat and stares up at the old man.

Date

1832

Crédit

Photo12/Heritage Images/Heritage Art

Notre référence

HRM23B22_085

Model release

NA

Property release

NA

Licence

Droits gérés

Format disponible

53,0Mo (2,4Mo) / 31,6cm x 42,0cm / 3737 x 4960 (300dpi)

Mots clés

Europe portrait people boy boys child children interior looking man men hat religious arts class country French France religion body bodies straw hat art guy watching continent clothes museum feet foot European color urchin bonnet dress devotion prayer praying kneeling chair plain location century inside barefoot boredom clothing bored furniture simple concept visual modest walking stick APPAREL B&W posture bare feet metaphor daily Life Colour elderly man devotional 19th century Indoors nobility black & white black and white B W aristocracy aristocrat contempt white and black nineteenth century genre scene social class the body head bowed old man old men Nicolas-Toussaint Charlet Charlet Nicolas-Toussaint fallen on hard times Walters Art Museum Charlet Nicolas-Toussaint Heritage Art 19th-century in prayer ladderback chair prie-dieu clothing & dress fashion & clothing Nicolas Toussaint Charlet transparent watercolour over graphite underdrawing with scraping on cream thick moderately textured wove paper