- Title:
- Legal Assistance
- Object name(s):
- Picture; French
- Brief description:
- Forain worked as an etcher and lithographer, as well as a painter, acquiring a reputation for his satirical, and often biting, scenes of Parisian life. A friend of Manet and Degas, he participated in some of the Impressionists’ exhibitions from 1879 to 1886. His later paintings were mainly scenes from the law courts and of the ballet.In his law court paintings, Forain’s sympathies lie with ordinary people, who are trapped within a complex and impersonal legal system. Although these scenes are in the tradition of Daumier, Forain avoids obvious caricature (for example, of lawyers and judges) and focuses instead on specific, and often mundane, situations and exchanges. Here, a poor man, accompanied by a little girl and carrying a young child in his arms, hands a paper to his counsel. Forain effectively uses gesture, pose and expression to convey the man’s situation.The painting was owned by Henri Rouart, whose daughter Hélène was the sitter for Degas's Hélène Rouart in her Father's Study.
- Collection:
- National Gallery
- Accession date:
- 1917-01-01
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1917
- Date - latest:
- 1917
- Acquisition source:
- Sir Hugh Percy Lane
- Associated concept:
- children
- Associated concept:
- law
- Credit line:
- Sir Hugh Lane Bequest, 1917, The National Gallery, London. In partnership with Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin.
- Current location:
- Not on display
- Current reproduction location:
- 3/747/466/72/mid_N-3249-00-000004.jpg
- Dimension:
- Height
- Dimension measured part:
- Overall
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 61.00
- Dimension:
- Width
- Dimension measured part:
- Overall
- Dimension measurement unit:
- cm
- Dimension value:
- 73.00
- Form:
- None
- Inscription content:
- Signed
- Material:
- oil on canvas
- Material:
- oil
- Material:
- canvas
- Object name:
- Picture; French
- Object production date:
- probably 1900-12
- Date - earliest / single:
- 1900
- Date - latest:
- 1912
- Object production date:
- Date - period:
- 1900-24
- Object production person:
- Jean-Louis Forain
- Person's birth date:
- 1852
- Person's death date:
- 1931
- Object production place:
- France
- Object production place:
- Paris
- Other number:
- NG3249
- Other number type:
- object number
- Other number:
- 0GLM-0001-0000-0000
- Other number type:
- PID
- Other number:
- NG3249
- Other number type:
- display number
- Other number:
- 000-04P4-0000
- Other number type:
- PID (NG alternative)
- Other number:
- ng33249
- Other number type:
- sort number
- Owner:
- Sir Hugh Percy Lane
- Responsible department/section:
- Main Collection
- Right note:
- To encourage the use and reuse of the National Gallery's collection data, they are released under the following dedications and licences: Structured data (as opposed to narrative texts) are released under a Creative Commons Zero dedication (CC0): https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/. Descriptions, notes and all other narrative text content are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence (CC BY): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Images are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 licence (CC BY-NC-ND): https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
- Style:
- post-Impressionist
- User's reference:
- National Gallery Catalogues: French School: Early 19th Century, Impressionists, Post-Impressionists etc.
- Reference details:
- 65
- Reference note:
- Latest catalogue
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue
- Reference details:
- 226
- Reference note:
- Key bibliography
- Reference type:
- reference
- User's reference:
- Hugh Lane : founder of a gallery of modern art for Ireland /edited by Barbara Dawson ; assisted by Logan Sisley, Jessica O'Donnell, and Michael Dempsey.
- Reference details:
- Ill. (p. 137)
- Reference type:
- reference
Persistent shareable link for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/87233821-1255-31f5-9f79-7a47576502dd
Use licence for this record: CC BY
Attribution for this record: https://museumdata.uk/objects/87233821-1255-31f5-9f79-7a47576502dd, National Gallery, CC BY
Is there a problem with this record? Give feedback.