Detail from Musique des voisins (Music of [men] neighbors) by Hippolyte-Guillaume-Sulpice Chevalier, called Paul Gavarni, 1844. Dayton C. Miller Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
This is a humorous scene in which a musician holds a flageolet in his left hand and a clarinet under his left arm, while he answers the door and listens to the complaint of his neighbor. A translation of the inscription beneath this image reads: "Here it is three in the morning, neighbor, three hours you've been playing for us on that flageolet, and if you will allow me to make an observation that.... But how could I have guessed, Sir, that you prefer the clarinet?"
This lithograph by Gavarni, a popular 19th-century French artist, was issued separately to subscribers of the journal, Revue et Gazette Musicale de Paris. It is described in volume 11, issue number 11, for 17 March 1844, on page 95. Here is a translation of the text: "Music of [men] neighbors / Drawing by Gavarni. The Gazette musicale has already discussed, in an exclusive chapter, Music of [women] neighbors; this time Gavarni deals with the subject of Music of [men] neighbors; his ingenious drawing could have been titled Flageolet and Clarinet; but that would have had the appearance of recalling the famous opera, Pigeon, fly, which had as its second title Flute and Dagger. Do you know of anything more natural, more simple, more true, than the figure, the expression and the dialogue of the two speakers? Soon Gazette musicale will give you an example [physiology] of another type of music not yet explored, and which has requested from him [Gavarni] some profound studies: the Music of Students!!!"[1]
The opera, Pigeon-vole ou Flûte et poignard, refers to an opera written by François Henri Joseph Blaze, called Castil-Blaze (1784-1857), that was produced in Paris in 1843, the year before this lithograph was published in Gazette musicale. The setting of the opera is the chateau of Count Montalbo, a Venetian gentleman, on the shores of the Adriatic, in 1670. Countess Ortensia, his wife, is in love with a flutist, Assandro, whose message sent by a pigeon is intercepted, and Assandro is killed by a dagger in the garden as he plays his flute for the Countess.[2]
This lithograph by Gavarni was included in The Pipers: An Exhibition of Engravings, Watercolors and Lithographs from the Dayton C. Miller Collection, Library of Congress, March 1977. See another lithograph in the Miller collection by Gavarni, 473/W.
About the Artist
Hippolyte-Guillaume-Sulpice Chevalier, called Paul Gavarni (pseudonym), draughtsman, watercolorist and lithographer, 1804-1866
Hippolyte-Guillaume-Sulpice Chevalier, known by his pseudonym of Paul Gavarni, was a draughtsman, watercolorist and lithographer who was born in Paris in 1804 and who died in the same city in 1866. He was a caricaturist whose early works were light-hearted and centered on anecdotal scenes from the daily life of fashionable Paris, particularly the world of women. He produced such lithographs and a few caricatures for the paper, La Caricature, beginning in 1831. In 1834, he began to make series of lithographs on particular themes for the satirical journal, Le Charivari. Gavarni's prints had already been published in England as early as 1829. After he spent time there in 1847 and 1851, his satirical prints were no longer so light-hearted. They focused, instead, on the plight of the working poor and contrasted their wretched lives with those of the wealthier classes. Gavarni counted among his friends some of the greatest writers and artists of his day - Balzac, Gautier, Dumas, and Edmond and Jules de Goncourt. His work was widely praised for the elegance of his technique as well as his satire, but his late work was not popular as it reflected his own disillusionment with life.[3]
Notes
- Original text: "MUSIQUE DES VOISINS. / Dessin de Gavarni. / La Gazette musicale avait déjà traité, dans un chapitre ex professo, de la Musique des Voisines; cette fois Gavarni aborde le chapitre de la Musique des Voisins; son ingénieux dessin pouvait être intitulé: Flageolet et Clarinette; mais cela eût eu l'air de vouloir rappeler le fameux opéra de Pigeon vole, qui avait pour second titre Flûte et Poignard. Connaissez-vous rien de plus naturel, de plus simple, de plus vrai, que la figure, la tournure et le dialogue des deux interlocuteurs? Bientôt la Gazette musicale vous donnera la physiologie d'une autre espèce de musique non encore explorée, et qui lui a demandé de profondes études: la Musique des Etudiants!!!" Library of Congress. Music Division. Microfilm Music 996 ML, reel 4, for 17 March 1844. [back to article]
- This opera is in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. Call number: M1503.B644P5. It is undated, but a brief description of it is given in The American history and encyclopedia of music. 12 vols. Toledo and New York: I. Squire, 1908-1910. See the Supplement to the two volumes on Opera, A list of supplementary operas.... New York: I. Squire, 1910, p. 407, under Pigeon, Vole! (Pigeon, Fly!), where it states that this opera was produced in Paris in 1843. LC call number: ML160.H852. The date of 1843 is confirmed in an article by Mark Everist, "Castil-Blaze," in Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. [back to article]
- For further biographical information on Gavarni, see two articles: 1) Michel Melot, "Paul Gavarni," in Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online; and 2) Helen Langdon, "Paul Gavarni," in the Oxford Companion to Western Art via Oxford Art Online (both by subscription only). [back to article]