At the Caster's
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Paint |
| Current Location: | Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, France |
| Location History: | Jean-François Raffaëlli painted At the Caster’s (Chez le fondeur) in 1886 in France, depicting the foundry workshop of Eugène Gonon, a skilled caster involved in producing monumental sculptures. The painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1886, where it was purchased by the French national museums. On 12 October 1886, it entered the collection of the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. In 1892, it was transferred to the Louvre, where it remained until 1893, when it was deposited at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lyon. In 1986, the painting was formally assigned to the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, which maintains its collection record under inventory number RF 474. However, its recorded place of conservation remains the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon. Its exhibition history also includes Art et travail in Geneva in 1957, Jules Dalou, le sculpteur de la République in Paris in 2013, and Arts et métiers in Montbrison in 2016. This documented journey from the Paris Salon to successive French museum collections traces how the painting became part of the country's public artistic herita |
The artist has employed an earthen palette of ochre, brown, cream and dull gold, hinting at the dusty interior of a workshop. Although his application of paint is somewhat casual in parts, we can still make out the figures' figures and gestures and their expressions. The contrast between the grand sculpture of the background and the working figures in the foreground is startling. Instead of a focus on the artist who carved the sculpture, Raffaëlli points to the hard work of the labourers who transformed a design into a solid form. The composition establishes an interesting contrast between the static quality of the sculptural relief and the motion of the group of men around it. The men in the background are depicted in a very formal, even theatrical way, while the group of workers in the foreground are depicted in a more naturalistic manner with each worker involved in a different activity. The older man standing towards the centre is the pictorial centre of attention because of his central placement and his lighter colour. His gesture seems to link all the figures suggesting that making a sculpture is a collaborative effort involving supervision, discussion and cooperation. Somewhat more visible or intriguing is the unfinished or partially exposed sculpture in the middle of the scene. This emphasizes to the viewer that a work of art doesn't just come from an artist's mind fully formed. It is produced through a series of stages, with the knowledge, materials and tools of a variety of skilled craftspeople. Raffaëlli records this process without glamourising it. The workshop is a working space and looks a bit dirty, and the working clothes and attitudes suggest the physicality involved. However, perhaps the most eye-catching aspect is the interaction between the human figure and the piece of artwork they are creating. Although the sculptural relief conceals most of the background, the workers are still very much in the forefront of our view and therefore stand between us and the final artistic product, which may one day be admired by an audience. By doing this Raffaëlli brings respect to a usually unrecognised form of artistic creation. In summary, At the Caster is far more than simply a portrait of a workshop. It introduces the viewer to the collaborative life of sculpture, and prompts a recognition of the human body which turns out to be working 'knowledge', able to produce an object of art. Raffaëlli captures the presence, gestures and working conditions of those hands that turn aspiration into material art.
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