Lunch at the Fork (Le Dejeuner à la Fourchette)

Johann Gottfried Schadow

1813 · Watercolor · Drawings and Prints

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.

Artist

Johann Gottfried Schadow

Date

1813

Medium

Watercolor

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2019