I Told You So by Paul Charles Chocarne Moreau

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This is another amusing, innocent adolescent joke illustrated by Paul Charles Moreau from his long list of such comic-incident-driven paintings. He is a painter whose oeuvre is full of Parisian boys doing all the hilarious jokes and pranks on the streets of Paris or inside a building. He was an out-of-the-box artist whose art-pieces stand apart from other ‘serious’ artists whose paintings have more serious touch but lesser appeal than Paul Charles Moreau.

The presented painting depicts the old Paris, contemporary to the painter himself. You can know it by looking at the old buildings, old advertisement boards, characters’ clothing and the fact that a boy is working in a shop, which is banned nowadays by various laws.

Artist has captured the expressions of the character quiet accurately. One is suffering from the unprecedented pain which he never felt in his life before apparently, while other boy is acting like a big brother and pointing out ‘I told you so’ face with a finger. Actually, he seems more of enjoying the scene.

Artist has taken great care of painting to not slip in the sympathetic realm for the black suit boy. Instead, he has illustrated the scene as an amusement, as a fun and emphasizing the both boy’s characters in a quick frame.

We can easily presume that the little boy might have got curious and wanted to catch that living lobster, and even after the big boy’s warnings he tried to catch the lobster and ended up getting his finger bitten. So, the big boy got his chance and with a relishing grin, said “I told you so.” It’s completely funny and adoring incident.

After watching some other art-works by the artist, we start to think that whether he actually roamed in Paris to get inspired for his paintings, because the subjects of his paintings are always so natural, common and real, that it feels very near to the local culture. You don’t see any fantasized or fictitious element, person, surrounding or expressions. All is normal and expected (like the dog in the background) and yet very much comical and enjoyable.

We should consider it being a characteristic of an ample artist. Because, it’s very hard to impress people by taking the regular thing as a main subject which they can see every day and yet make them intrigued in your art.

There you need some real skill.