# Under the Lamp ("Once upon a midnight dreary..."), from The Raven (Le Corbeau)

**Édouard Manet** (French, 1832–1883)  
1875  
Transfer lithograph in black on gray China paper  
Image: 27.3 × 38 cm (10 3/4 × 15 in.); Sheet: 39.5 × 55.6 cm (15 9/16 × 21 15/16 in.)

Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1945.52.3. [The museum's record](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/111364).

## About this work

“Once upon a midnight dreary”: the narrator of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Raven sits under the lamp among his books in the first of Manet’s illustrations to the poem. In 1875 the poet Stéphane Mallarmé published his French translation, Le Corbeau, in a large-format edition with Manet’s images. Manet drew them with brush and ink on transfer paper, and the sweeping, almost improvised black strokes, printed as lithographs, catch the poem’s nocturnal mood with a freedom close to ink painting.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

Édouard Manet made this in 1875, aged 43. It is now at the Art Institute of Chicago.

### What you’re looking at

A work made of transfer lithograph in black on gray china paper.

_Description from the Art Institute of Chicago._

### How it was made

- **Lithograph.** Drawn on limestone with a greasy crayon or ink. The stone is kept damp, and the oily printing ink clings only to the drawing. Invented in the 1790s, it let artists print exactly as they drew.

### [Édouard Manet](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/edouard-manet)

French, 1832–1883; born in Paris; died in Paris

Manet came from a prosperous Parisian family, trained under Thomas Couture and studied the old masters, Velázquez above all. In the 1860s he provoked critics with Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe and Olympia, modern subjects painted in flat, frank colour with little modelling. Though he never showed with the Impressionists, younger painters looked to him as a leader, and in his last years he painted Parisian café life and A Bar at the Folies-Bergère.

_Written by Ochre Editions._

## Facts

- Type: Print
- Culture: France
- The artist was 43
- Real size: about 11 × 15 in (27 × 38 cm). The 11 × 14 in print is close to life size.
- Century: 19th century
- Colour: white
- Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose.

## Get it

- Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/280.jpg?dl=1
- Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/280/1920.jpg
- Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86; 24 × 36 in $108
- Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208; 24 × 36 in $258
- Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118; 20 × 30 in $148
- Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5; 24 × 36 in $5

Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/under-the-lamp-once-upon-a-midnight-dreary-from-the-raven-le-aic-111364).