Lady eating oysters.

Drawing, pen and black ink, with aquarelle, 16,5 x 25,5 cm, unsigned.

Comical scene of a young bourgeois lady eating oysters in public, while onlookers gaze at her in disbelief. In the early 19th century, oysters were cheap and mainly eaten by the working class. Paul Gavarni was the nom de plume of Sulpice Guillaume Chevalier (1804-1866). His first published drawings were for the magazine "Journal des modes". His sharp and witty drawings gave generally commonplace and unartistic figures a lifelike quality and an expression which soon won him a name in fashionable circles.
Joined: 1. Degouy, Nelly - Lady and a monkey. Watercolour and pastel, 17,7 x 18,8 cm, thick paper, signed at lower right.-- 2. Anonymous - Two boys napping after lunch. France, ca. 1820. Watercolour, 8,4 x 11,2 cm, paper, unsigned. Under small glass frame and passe-partout. (3 pcs)