La Prière (The Prayer) or Le Retour (from "Les List et Les Roses.”)

Paul Gavarni

A sweet image of a mid-19th century mother and daughter saying prayers at bedtime. Paul Gavarni’s genre lithographs were popular in France during his lifetime, as was the artist himself. Gregarious, talented, and witty, he would follow in the footsteps of Daumier in uplifting the lithograph medium as a fine art through a variety of publications. His depictions of interiors with intimate familial scenes and everyday people unhindered by classical stereotypes helped kickstart his career; later, he would turn toward more political themes.

In this early lithograph, the mother is young and fashionable, and appears content with her life. Later in his career women bearing a similar visage would appear in other stages of life, including on their deathbed, as if the character was one that followed alongside Gavarni on his own path.