Tired Out, from "The Graphic" Christmas Number

Adrien Emmanuel Marie

December 7, 1885 · Color wood engraving · Drawings and Prints

This gently humorous image offers a back-stage glimpse of one of London’s famous Christmas pantomimes, lavish theatrical spectacles that offered audiences fairy tale characters, dancers, child performers, men dressed as women, and sometimes live animals. Here, two dozing children are surrounded by props related to a performance–they may be waiting for a long rehearsal to end. Marie was a French genre painter and illustrator who also worked in London and created this design for the popular weekly periodical "The Graphic." The engraver has not been identified, but the journal, founded in 1869 by William Luson Thomas to rival the "Illustrated London News," attracted readers with beautifully produced color images in Christmas issues, the present example published in 1885.

Artist

Adrien Emmanuel Marie

Date

December 7, 1885

Medium

Color wood engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2015