Woman at a Window, Surrounded by Miniature Men

Somm's sketchbooks contain numerous studies of women, including some featuring small, winged men. Elizabeth Menon has connected these images of women tormenting men to Somm's anxiety over the increasingly public role of women in tandem with the women's rights movement in France. Some men take the form of puppet-like creatures, although they are alive, while others sport wings or are leashed by strings. The inscription "Les vieux papillons," or the old butterflies, refers to the men with exaggerated features seeking the woman's attention. In this scene, a miniature man appears in a cage at left while two winged men hover at the window before a woman with an exceptionally large bustle; a third man has fallen to the ground and lies with limbs akimbo like a broken doll. The larger group of whimsical yet bizarre scenes combines Somm's more conventional depictions of elegantly dressed women and comic tropes of caricatured men.