At The Fortune Teller's, émile Le Menorel 1880

Émile Le Menorel (born in 1848)
Cartomancy scene Oil on wood, circa 1880-1890
Dimensions (frame included): 30 x 35 cm

Gilded wooden frame decorated with pearls and twisted ribbonThis intimate genre scene, painted by Émile Le Menorel, represents a cartomancy consultation in a bourgeois interior of the early 19th century. Three women are gathered around a table covered with green velvet, lit by the warm light of a bouillotte lamp: on the left, an old fortune teller reads the cards intensely; in the center, a young woman stands watching, half amused, half perplexed; on the right, a third seems absorbed in her thoughts, no doubt struck by what the cards reveal to her.
.If the decor, the Empire costumes and the attitudes evoke the 1800 style, the pictorial style and the spirit of the painting clearly reflect the retro-romantic taste of the late 19th century. In this vein dear to historicist painters, Le Menorel recreates with finesse and humor an atmosphere of the past, full of mystery and sensitivity. The lighting treatment, with its chiaroscuro effects and the reduced format of the painting reinforce the emotional intensity of the scene.
This type of subject particularly appealed to the cultivated bourgeoisie of the Third Republic, sensitive to the charm of the old regime and the sentimental scenes of the past.