“Les Petites Ouvrières” from ‘Dans La Vie’
Here’s a little glimpse of Parisian life at the turn of the twentieth century from a man who loved cats.
This drawing was made by the Swiss Art Nouveau artist, Théophile Steinlen. It is captioned “Il n’y est pas! Sûr c’est un lapin! il devait me donner un louis aujourd’hui”. The original sketch was charcoal, pencil, and watercolor on paper.
This illustration is from Steinlen’s book, Dans La Vie, which was first published in 1901 in Paris by Sevin et Rey. Dans La Vie (‘In the Life’) is an art book by Théophile Steinlen that contains 99 captioned color plates, a lithograph cover, and a black and white portrait of Steinlen himself.
Steinlen created a book collecting many of his magazine illustrations of city life in the latter part of the nineteenth century. These images depict the more colorful side of Parisian life, including prostitutes, beggars, lovers, and other sundry characters. The chapter names in the book are explanative with titles like “Lovers”, “Dances and Such”, “The Workers”, “The Rascals”, “The Down and Out”, “The Little Workers”, and “Pimps and Prostitutes”. The image here was located in the “Les Petites Ouvrières”, or “The Little Workers” chapter.
For more on Théophile Steinlen, please visit his short biography here.
You can find more artists to learn about here.
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