Lunch at the Fork (Le Dejeuner à la Fourchette)

Johann Gottfried Schadow German

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Lunch at the Fork is an important example of Schadow’s work as a caricaturist and watercolorist. This is one of two small-scale watercolors that Schadow refers to in his diary as the beginning of a series of designs for the publisher Carl Weiss. This and its pair, Napoleon's Retreat, were turned into etchings in 1813. They depict Napoleon’s horrific retreat from Russia, a subject with personal meaning for Schadow, who himself had French troops billeted in his house in Berlin. Schadow’s handling is extremely lively and the colors remarkably fresh creating a lightness and energy that belie the subject matter.

Lunch at the Fork (Le Dejeuner à la Fourchette), Johann Gottfried Schadow (German, Berlin 1764–1850 Berlin), Watercolor

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