Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris 1830 - 1890

Editor: This drawing, "Design for a Stage Set at the Opéra, Paris" by Eugène Cicéri, created sometime between 1830 and 1890, is quite intriguing. I find the underlying grid structure and visible pencil strokes especially fascinating. What can you tell me about its artistic intention, or how one might read the piece? Curator: Considering the materiality, the paper itself, the graphite of the pencil, these elements speak to the division of labor inherent in the production of theatrical spectacle. Cicéri, a celebrated designer, likely didn't build the sets himself. This drawing represents a stage in a complex process. How does examining it as a material object change our understanding of the Opera itself? Editor: That's interesting – so you are suggesting we look at the drawing as a part of a larger industrial process, a component of theatrical spectacle? Rather than appreciating it solely as an artwork in its own right? Curator: Precisely! The grid, the geometric shapes, the seemingly unfinished state – they all point to a systematized approach, a blueprint. It suggests a specific division of labour, a designed production of art to be scaled, built, and ultimately consumed. Are there ways the aesthetic choices here seem in service to a burgeoning, consuming public? Editor: That is helpful. Seeing the division of labor within art-making is a new angle for me to think about, how art is actually a production. Curator: The 'behind the scenes' preparation required so that, at the final Opera presentation, none of these material concerns are visible – do you find something ironic there? Editor: Now that you point that out, I see how it obscures the physical work involved in bringing that artistic vision to life! Thinking of this drawing in relation to art production and social context, helps highlight this.