The Thieves and the Donkey, from "L'Artiste"
Medium
Lithograph on chine collé
Dimensions
Image: 9 1/8 × 10 1/4 in. (23.1 × 26.1 cm) Plate: 8 11/16 × 9 15/16 in. (22 × 25.2 cm) Sheet: 10 1/16 in. × 13 in. (25.5 × 33 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Miss Frederick S. Hoppin, 1963
Accession Number
63.527.58
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the mid-19th century, Romantic artist Alexandre-Gabriel Dec captured dramatic, often humorous scenes inspired by fables and everyday life, blending Orientalist influences with vivid storytelling. *The Thieves and thekey*, created around 1849, is a lithograph on ch collé by Alphon-Charles Masson after Decamps' original design. Published in the influential art periodical *L'Artiste*, it exemplifies how prints democratized access to high art, allowing middle-class audiences to own reproductions of celebrated works. The image depicts a chaotic tussle among men wrestling over a donkey—likely no...
About the Artist
Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps|Alphonse-Charles Masson · 1803–1860
Comment on works: genre