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Boy Reading (Jeune Garçon Lisant)

A work made of black chalk, heightened with touches of white chalk, on white laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of black chalk, heightened with touches of white chalk, on white laid paper.

Date:

c. 1861

Artist:

François Bonvin
French, 1817-1887

About this artwork

Born into a large and very poor family, François Bonvin joined the Parisian police department as a clerk to support his new wife and child, saving money for art classes in his time off. This powerful drawing suggests the importance of education to improve one’s station and justifies Bonvin’s reputation as the father of Realist drawing. In fact, the subject is not actually reading, but is rather thinking, with a work of art on the wall behind him.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

François Bonvin

Title

Boy Reading (Jeune Garçon Lisant)

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.

1856–1866

Medium

Black chalk, heightened with touches of white chalk, on white laid paper

Inscriptions

Signed lower left, in image, in black chalk: "F Bonvin"

Dimensions

47.5 × 31.2 cm (18 3/4 × 12 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Harold Joachim Memorial Endowment Fund

Reference Number

1994.101

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/129771/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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