L'avocat parlant au prévenu (1ère planche) (The Lawyer Talking to the Prisoner) (first plate)

Forain employed drypoint, incising lines directly into a copper plate; the resulting burr creates a soft, velvety line that appears as a dense, textured sketch on the paper. The artist’s hand is evident in the rapid, gestural strokes, giving the figures a spontaneous, almost scribbled quality that contrasts with the more polished finishes of his oil paintings.

The print was produced during the later phase of Forain’s career, a period when his prints sold more readily than many of his Impressionist contemporaries. Though commercially successful at the time, his reputation waned in the decades that followed, leading to a relative obscurity of works such as this in modern scholarship.

At the turn of the twentieth century, French printmakers increasingly turned to urban and social subjects, reflecting the rapid changes of modern life. Forain’s choice of a courtroom scene aligns with this trend, situating the piece within a broader movement that sought to document the everyday realities of Parisian society.