Si les chevaux s'entendaient? Quelle révolution! (If the horses get along? What a revolution!)

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Artist/Maker Nicolas Toussaint Charlet (French, 1792 - 1845)

Date1840

MediumLithograph on paper

DimensionsSheet: 20 3/4 × 14 1/4 in. (52.7 × 36.2 cm) Composition: 12 1/4 × 8 3/4 in. (31.1 × 22.2 cm)

Credit LineGift of D. Roger Howlett, Class of 1966

Object number1988.8

On view

DescriptionThis lithograph was executed around the time of the French Revolutions of 1830 and 1848 as France was advancing towards a new democracy. This was a time when many artists poked fun at bourgeois ideals. The caption below makes an analogy between the peasant and the horse which is ruthlessly whipped by its master. The coachman and his comrade humorously compare the horse's right to lay down, refusing to work, with the rights of the peasant or underclass. It is a good example of Charlet's flair for the "maniere noire."

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Additional Details

Provenance 1988: Hamilton College (Fred L. Emerson Gallery), by gift ofD. Roger Howlett

Published References Emerson Gallery, Hamilton College, Friends of Art Newsletter, vol. 1, no. 2, February 1989, "Acquisitions"

Signature Signed in stone at lower right: Charlet

Inscribed Inscribed in pencil at lower center: 970; in pencil at lower right: P194.825; in typeset at upper right: No. 4.; entitled in typeset at lower center: SI LES CHEVAUX S'ENTENDAIENT? QUELLE RÉVOLUTION!!; inscribed in typeset at lower center: S'ils ne voulaient plus recevoir de coups de fouet? s'ils se disaient: nous ne voulons plus qu'on nous / étrillasse, ni qu'on nous écorchasse...........? avec la réforme, ça mettrait le pouvoir sur la paille?; in typeset at lower left: A Paris, chez Gihaut frères, bard. des Italiens, No. 5.; in typeset at lower right: Lith. dé Villain, rue de Sevres, 17.; in pencil on verso at lower right: NT. Charlet (1792-1845 / (L970) / 1840-;