The Drawing Lesson
About The Drawing Lesson
A painter finds a fountain in a decorated niche, sets his easel, and goes for his students. A prankster turns a barrel into a pedestal, a ball into a small sun, the sun into a woman's head, and a handkerchief and jacket into her dress. A statue stands in front of the niche. The class returns. She comes to life, steals the painter's hat, and turns into a fountain. The prankster soaks him.
Cast & crew
More about The Drawing Lesson
Georges Méliès directed and plays the prankster. The French title is La Statue animée. Also called The Drawing Lesson, or the Living Statue. Star Film Company numbered it 470–471 and sold it as a Louis XV scène à trucs. Wikidata gives 3 minutes. A surviving print runs 2 minutes and 37 seconds. Effects include substitution splices, multiple exposures on black, dissolves, and a cascade of real water. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Themes
Making
Méliès builds the woman out of separate tricks, then turns her into water on the painter.
Look
Substitution splices and exposures on black build the statue. The last gag uses a real cascade.
Technique
A statue assembled by splices, then replaced by a real spray of water.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- Méliès reused the sun and the woman's head later in 1903 in Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician.
- The fountain at the end is real water, not a painted jet.
- The painter's hat is what she takes when she moves.
- The catalog advertises it as a Louis XV scene.
Scenes
- The prankster builds a woman out of a ball, a handkerchief, and a coat.
- She becomes a fountain and he soaks the painter.
Influenced
- Alcofrisbas, the Master Magician (1903)
