Les Temps Nouveaux 1906

Théophile Alexandre Steinlen made this lithograph, called Les Temps Nouveaux, to express a feeling of expectancy. It was made in France, a nation rocked by social and political turbulence in the late 19th century. Steinlen was involved in the artistic life of Paris, and was engaged with the leftist politics that informed the art journal for which this lithograph served as a frontispiece. Here he gives us a figure emerging from darkness, carrying what looks like a shepherd’s staff. But he’s not looking down to guide his flock. He’s gazing upwards and outwards, into the unknown, seemingly hopeful for what lies ahead. To understand this work fully, we could look into the history of French journals and their relationship to radical politics, studying the ways artists used imagery to galvanize the public and challenge existing social norms.