Don't you know, Mr. Coquardeau, what your daughter did? c. 19th century

Curator: Ah, this is Paul Gavarni's "Don't you know, Mr. Coquardeau, what your daughter did?" currently residing at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: Goodness, it feels like a scene ripped from a gothic novel—a child collapsed, a distraught father, and a figure lurking in the shadows. Curator: Gavarni excelled at capturing social critique through imagery. Here, he portrays the dynamics of family, likely commenting on the pressures and secrets within bourgeois households. Editor: The fallen toys, the limp doll... there's a sense of playfulness disrupted, almost a staged melodrama. It certainly makes you wonder, doesn't it? Curator: Indeed. Gavarni's work often served as a mirror reflecting the anxieties and moral ambiguities of 19th-century Parisian society. Editor: Makes you wonder what secrets families hold, doesn’t it? What price innocence in a world that doesn't value it?