Monsieur Jourdain
ca. 1840
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/16 × 6 11/16 in. (23 × 17 cm) Image: 4 3/8 × 3 1/4 in. (11.1 × 8.3 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1933
Accession Number
33.104.2442
Tags
Art Historical Context
This engraving by Horace Vernet, created around 1840, captures a lively scene of men and women engaged in fencing. Titled *Monsieur Jourdain*, the small-scale print—measuring just over four inches in the image area—invites close viewing, revealing the dynamic poses and interactions of its figures. As a work classified among prints in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection, it reflects the 19th-century interest in genre subjects drawn from literature and social observation. Engraving allowed artists like Vernet to translate energetic compositions into reproducible form, making such images widely...