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Line in Front of the Butcher Shop

A work made of etching in warm black on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching in warm black on ivory laid paper.

Date:

1870–71

Artist:

Édouard Manet (French, 1832-1883)
printed by Henri Charles Guérard (French, 1846-1897)

About this artwork

As a member of the National Guard during the Prussian siege of 1870, Edouard Manet witnessed the misery of wartime Paris. He wrote, “[The] butcher shops open only three times a week, and there are queues in front of their doors from four in the morning, and the last in line get nothing.” The abstract patterns of arrayed umbrellas in this print recall the work of the Japanese printmaker Utagawa Hiroshige. The bayonet rising above the umbrellas, however, reveals the military presence required to control the hungry crowd.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Édouard Manet

Title

Line in Front of the Butcher Shop

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

Made 1870–1871

Medium

Etching in warm black on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 16.9 × 15 cm (6 11/16 × 5 15/16 in.); Plate: 23.6 × 15.8 cm (9 5/16 × 6 1/4 in.); Sheet: 26.7 × 17.8 cm (10 9/16 × 7 1/16 in.)

Credit Line

Clarence Buckingham Collection

Reference Number

1984.1123

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/103109/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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