He played us Massenet, what an artist - me I only love Chopin it's more substantial
1902
Step into a 1902 dressing room where musical snobbery is the main event! Fernand Louis Gottlob captures a hilarious moment of social one-upmanship: the standing lady, sporting a magnificent hat, gushes about a musician who played Massenet, while her seated friend, casually fixing her makeup at a cluttered vanity, dismissively retorts that she prefers Chopin because it's 'more substantial.' This witty illustration perfectly skewers the pretentious art conversations of the Belle Époque, proving that people have been arguing over 'high culture' for over a century.