Charles Joseph Traviès de Villers
1838
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Dominant colour
Scènes de moeurs: Bellotte! ma petite Bellote! veux-tu laisser ce vilain poisson! is a 1838 by Charles Joseph Traviès de Villers, a Romanticism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
This sketch shows two exaggerated characters in a dark, dimly lit room. One person looks shocked, arms outstretched, while the other stands stiffly in fancy clothes, holding a small fish. A dog sits nearby, and a swan floats in a bowl of water. The scene feels staged, like a joke or a silly moment frozen in time. The title at the top, *Scènes de moeurs*, hints this is about everyday (or exaggerated) life. The fish and the characters’ over-the-top reactions might be a playful jab at something—maybe how people act around food or money. If you like this mix of humor and drama, check out Romanticism.
Charles-Joseph Traviès de Villers, also known simply as Traviès, was a Swiss-born French painter, lithographer, and caricaturist whose work appeared regularly in Le Charivari and La Caricature.
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