Caricature of Eugène Marcel

Claude Monet's "Caricature of Eugène Marcel" (1855/56) is a graphite drawing with white chalk on gray wove paper, depicting a Le Havre resident named Eugène Marcel. The combination of graphite and white chalk on gray paper gives this drawing a softer, more modeled quality than some of Monet's more linear caricatures. The gray paper provides a mid-tone, the graphite creates the darker lines and shadows, and the white chalk picks out highlights. Eugène Marcel's features are exaggerated with the young Monet's characteristic comic touch—perhaps a prominent brow, a distinctive nose, or an oversized chin. The dating 1855/56 places this among Monet's earliest surviving works, created when he was only 15 or 16 years old and still a schoolboy in Le Havre. The fact that these caricatures survive at all is remarkable, given that they were produced as ephemeral entertainments. They are now treasured as the first evidence of the genius that would transform painting.

These early caricatures, created by Monet as a teenager, are among the most important surviving documents of the artist's beginnings, showing the raw talent that would soon revolutionize art.

This caricature from Monet's mid-teens shows the astonishing early development of his draftsmanship, the combination of graphite and white chalk on gray paper revealing a young artist already in command of his materials.