Boy Reading (Jeune Garçon Lisant) c. 1861

François Bonvin rendered this quiet scene of a Boy Reading using black crayon and charcoal heightened with white chalk on paper. These are simple, direct materials, with a long and rich history. Bonvin has built the image through accumulation, hatching lines over and over. Look closely, and you’ll see how the tooth of the paper grabs the crayon and charcoal, creating a granular surface, a kind of built texture. Bonvin was deeply interested in realism, and this attention to the material world is part of that sensibility. The grainy texture, the rather drab palette – all of these choices speak of the everyday. Bonvin, although academically trained, often depicted working-class subjects, and this comes through in his matter-of-fact technique. There’s nothing flashy or pretentious here, just a deep respect for the value of labor, both the labor of the boy in acquiring knowledge, and the artist in capturing it. This commitment to unvarnished experience helps us understand the social context from which the artwork emerged, and its ongoing relevance today.