Les maris me font toujours rire: Je suis le mari de M'ame Jolibiais

Art Historical Context

Paul Gavarni's *Les maris me font toujours: Je suis le mari M'ame Jolibiais* (1853) is a delightful lithograph capturing the sharp wit of mid-19th-century Parisian social satire. Gavarni, a leading French caricaturist of the Romantic era, specialized in humorous vignettes that poked fun at bourgeois life, marriage, and gender dynamics. The title, translating to "Hus always make me laugh: am the husband of Mme Jolibiais," suggests a comical domestic scene, likely featuring aless husband and his spirited wife, reflecting the era's growing fascination with witty, relatable everyday follies amid France's Second Empire prosperity. Printed in black ink on cream wove paper, this lithograph exemplifies the medium's revolutionary appeal in the 19th century. Lithography allowed artists like Gavarni to draw directly on stone with greasy crayon, enabling mass production of detailed, expressive images at affordable prices—perfect for magazines and popular prints. At 21.9 × 18.6 cm, the intimate image size invites close viewing of his fluid lines and expressive faces, hallmarks of his observational style honed through contributions to journals like *Le Charivari*. Housed in the Art Institute of Chicago's Prints and Drawings Department, this work highlights Gavarni's enduring influence on graphic satire, offering visitors a window into 1850s French humor and the cultural shift toward accessible visual storytelling.

About the Artist

Paul Gavarni · 1804–1866

Paul Gavarni, born Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier on January 13, 1804, in Paris to a cooper father from Burgundy and mother Marie-Monique Thiémet—whose brother, painter Guillaume Thiémet, served as his godfather—began his career far from the art world. As a youth, he worked in a machine factory and studied mechanical drawing at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in 1818, followed by evening classe...