During Intermission Possibly 1894

Alexandre Lunois made this color lithograph titled "During Intermission", sometime in the late 19th century, depicting a scene from Parisian social life. Lunois captures the atmosphere of leisure and entertainment enjoyed by the bourgeoisie, the commercial and professional middle class, during France's Third Republic. The print offers a glimpse into the cultural rituals and social hierarchies of the time. We see a formal theatre setting, but the drama is happening offstage, during the break. Note the way the figures are arranged to suggest social status, and a certain formality of interaction. Lunois’s print invites us to consider the relationship between art, entertainment, and social class in late 19th-century Paris. Researching theater programs and social diaries from the period would reveal how these cultural institutions served as spaces for both artistic expression and the reinforcement of social norms. Studying the history of color lithography would show how artists experimented with new technologies to capture everyday life.