Honoré Daumier was born in Marseilles into the family of a glazier, who was fond of poetry and even wrote his own verses. In 1814, the family moved to Paris. Daumier started to study art in 1822 under the renowned artist and archaeologist Alexandre Lenoir. The financial situation forced Daumier to earn his living as a delivery boy, while at his spare time he sketched at the Louvre. About 1828, he learned the technique of lithography and began to work for small publishing houses. After the revolution of 1830 in the atmosphere of freedom of speech in France the role of mass media grew and the art of political satire flourished. In 1830, Daumier started to work for Philipon’s “Caricature” and “Le Charivari.”
A caricaturist famous for his scathing social commentary, Daumier earned his reputation primarily as a draughtsman. It was not until a posthumous exhibition held in Paris in 1878 that his paintings gained wide recognition. While Daumier’s political cartoons are often pointed—savagely precise in their references and implications—many of his paintings rely on ambiguity and nuance. This unfinished composition has been variously identified as a dramatic scene of escape and a mundane illustration of a house painter at work. With its bold, graphic style and equivocal subject, this painting is among the most shockingly modern pictures produced in the mid-nineteenth century.
For more biographical notes see part 1, and for earlier works, see parts 1 - 7 also.
This is part 8 of a major 23-part series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
1850 Actualités (Current Affairs):
1850 Actualités (Current Affairs):
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| 1850 No.47 Embellissemens de Paris - les nouvelles fortifications de la Cour du Louvre. colour lithograph 27 x 33 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1850 No.58. Mimi Véron croit avoir enfin trouvé le véritable moyen de pulveriser son ennemi. lithograph 35.9 x 27.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.70. Comment! pas un ami pour lui crier: cassecou! lithograph 27.2 x 35.9 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.75. Divertissement qui devrait être interdit aux personnages politiques considérables... lithograph 27.4 x 36 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.80. Achille Véron se retirant sous sa tente. lithograph 35.8 x 27.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.81. Arrivé en Alsace du commissaire extraordinaire Coco Romieu. lithograph 27.3 x 38.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.99. Le festin de Baltazar-Véron. colour lithograph 27 x 36 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1850 No.116. Fête du 4 Mai. Les Burgraves ornant de quelques fleurs la statue de la République. lithograph 27.4 x 36 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.124. Le Remède de Mimi Véron apothicaire en chef du Constitutionnel... hand coloured lithograph 27.6 x 35.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.128. Mr. Dupin dans ses petits souliers. lithograph 35.8 x 27 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.130. Les Moucherons politiques. lithograph 35.6 x 27.4cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.142. Les Fricoteurs politiques. lithograph National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1850 No.156. Les parisiens ayant trouvé moyen de circuler, en temps de pluie, sur les Boulevards macadamisés. lithograph 27.7 x 36 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.160. Mac-Adam et Bineau aux Enfers par suite d'une punition terrible. lithograph 27.2 x 35.9 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.161. Comme quoi le macadam contrarie spécialement le commerce de la galette. lithograph 27.5 x 35.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1850 No.165. Fâcheuse situation des marchands de galette du Boulevard les jours où la boue ne permet plus aux Parisiens…. hand-coloured lithograph and gum arabic 21.2 x 26.2 cm ( image ) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
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| 1850 The Butcher 30 x 23.3 cm Harvard Art Museums, Fogg Museum. Cambridge, MA |
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| 1850-52 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on panel 36.5 x 51.7 cm Itami City Museum of Art, Japan |
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| 1850-55 Blacksmith 28 x 21 cm Private Collection |
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| 1850-55 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on canvas 66 x 116 cm Private Collection, Zurich, Switzerland |
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| 1850-55 Don Quixote in the Mountains oil on canvas 24.1 x 46.3 cm Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Otterlo, Netherlands |
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| 1850-55 Pleading Lawyer oil on panel 12.7 x 13.7 cm Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 1850-55 The Blast of Wind oil on panel 20.4 x 14.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1850-55c The Gossip oil on canvas 40 x 32 cm Glasgow Museums Resource Centre, UK |
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| 1850-60c The Good Samaritan oil on canvas 166.2 x 1143 cm The Burrell Collection |
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| 1850-72 Music Lover 28.6 x 23 cm Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia |
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| 1850c At the Water's Edge oil on panel 33 x 24 cm Musee d'Art Moderne, Troyes, France |
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| 1850c Don Quixote and Sancho Panza 20 x 29.8 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1850c Don Quixote in the Mountains oil on panel 39.6 x 31.2 cm Bridgestone Museum of Art, Tokyo |
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| 1850c The Weight Lifter watercolour with brush and brown ink over graphite on cream wove paper 27 x 20.4 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1850c Water Carrier oil on panel 25.5 x 16.5 cm Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA |
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| early 1850s Don Quixote Makes Caprioles Before Sancho 35.8 x 26.5 cm Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| late 1850s Les trois commères pen and black in over chalk, heightened with white 16.4 x 26.2 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1850s Tête de Judge pen and black ink and wash on paper 10.8 x 9.3 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1851-53 Dancing Children oil on panel 26.9 x 21.6 NHW Ritchi, Texas |
1850-65 The Burden:
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| 1850-53 The Burden oil on canvas 130 x 98 cm Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg |
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| 1865-70 The Burden oil on canvas 147 x 95 cm Private Collection |
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| n.d. The Burden |
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| n.d. The Heavy Burden oil on panel 39.7 x 32.2 cm National Museum of Wales, UK |
1851 Actualités (Current Affairs):
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| 1851 No.78. La souscription Napoléonienne telle que l'auraient comprise les membres de la société du dix Décembre. colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.99. Alliance des Bonapartistes et des Capucins. lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.109. La prochaine distribution de prix à L'Academie Française. colour lithograph 26 x 28 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.151. Ce bon Mr. Ratapoil leur a promis qu'après qu'ils auraient signé sa pétition les alouettes leur tomberaient toutes rôties. colour lithograph 35 x 28 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.175. Confusion de la fusion! lithograph 27 x 38 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.221. Bas-relief en pain d'épices... lithograph 26 x 37.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.222. Les Principaux Personnages de la Comédie qui se joue en ce moment aux Champs-Elysées. lithograph 26.7 x 37.5 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.226. Nouveau joujou dédié par Ratapoil aux enfans des Décembristes. lithograph 37 x 26.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.239. Croquis pris au Havre. Le monsieur bien couvert... hand coloured lithograph 35 x 27.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.241. La France. Il y a assez longtemps que je vous porte sur mes épaules! colour lithograph x 25 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.256. Le triomphe de la loi du 31 Mai. lithograph on newsprint 36.4 x 25.2 cm ( sheet ) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
1851-52 Physionomies Tragiques (Tragic physiognomy):
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| 1851 No.1. Achille et Agamemnon. lithograph 27.4 x 35.5 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.2. Mérope lithograph 27.3 x 35.6 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.7. César. colour lithograph 27 x 34 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1851 No.8. Zaïre. lithograph 27.3 x 36 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1851 No.9. Héraclius. lithograph 27.4 x 36 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1852 No.1. Romain s'apprêtant à transpercer sa propre soeur... lithograph 18.1 x 27 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |