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 - 13 also.
This is part 14 of a major 23-part series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
1859 Actualités (Current Affairs):
1859 Naïvetés:
1859 Nos Troupiers (Our Troops):
1859 Pendant L'Armistice (During the Armistice) :
1859 Souvenir du Grand Festival des Orphéonists
(Remembrance of the Orphéonists Grand Festival):
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| 1858 The Three Judges watercolour and brush and black gouache, with charcoal, heightened with grey gouache, over touches of graphite, on ivory laid paper 36.3 x 53.8 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1858 Thieves and the Donkey oil on canvas Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1858c The Thieves and the Ass oil on canvas 41.5 x 33 cm Scharf Collection, Walther, Ev & René, Germany |
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| 1858-60 Study of a Man's Head oil on panel 35 x 26.7 cm Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany |
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| 1858-60c Passers By oil on canvas 25 x 115 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, France |
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| 1858-62 Two Heads oil on wood 23.5 x 30 cm Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil |
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| 1858c Man on a Rope oil on canvas 110.5 x 72.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1858c The Serenade National Galleries of Scotland, UK |
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| 1858c Two Drinkers oil on panel 22.7 x 28.9 cm The Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA |
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| 1859 La confidence ou le baiser de Judas oil on wood 13 x 18 cm ( image ) Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris |
1859 Actualités (Current Affairs):
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| 1859 Le Vieux General Giulay remplace par le Jeune General Schlick lithograph with colour wash on wove paper 22.7 x 28 cm ( image ) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
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| 1859 No.6. Quelle horrible chose...si nous avons la guerre!... lithograph 20.9 x 26 cm ( image ) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA |
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| 1859 No.7. La Situation de l'Italie. lithograph 27.5 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.34. Un triomphateur à Milan. hand-coloured lithograph and gum arabic 23.2 x 27.9 cm ( image ) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
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| 1859 No.35. Comme quoi actuellement en Toscane, il n'y a pas rien que le macaroni qui file. lithograph 28 x 36.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.35. Comme quoi actuellement en Toscane, il n'y a pas rien que le macaroni qui file. lithograph 28 x 36.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.52. - Voyons, kaiserlick..., aurons-nous bientôt fini ces galanteries avec les femmes ?... lithograph 27.8 x 36.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.60. - Tu ne lui as rien laissé, à ce fermier?... lithograph 28 x 36.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.69. Le général Giulay taillant ses ennemis en pièces... sur la carte !... lithograph 28 x 36.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.73. - Oh !!... je crois distinguer la barbe de Garibaldi !!!... lithograph 27.8 x 36.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.75. Notre retraite s'est opérée dans le plus grand ordre! lithograph 27.8 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.77. - Tu viens m'annoncer la victoire?... lithograph 27.7 x 36.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.80. Pauvre Giulay!...Repoussé de partout... hand-coloured lithograph and gum arabic 22.1 x 26.4 cm ( image ) National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
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| 1859 No.82. Le général Schlagmann, s'imaginant que le costume donne du courage, et voulant à tout prix se procurer aussi des zouaves,… colour lithograph 27 x 36 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1859 No.83. - Tiens..., tu te mets en autrichien, toi, pour faire la cuisine !... lithograph 27.7 x 36.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.84. A Mantoue. - Comment ... voici qu'ils viennent nous attaquer jusqu'ici! !... lithograph 27.8 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.85. - Tenez général... voilà ce que les zouaves appellent leur Fourchette !... lithograph 27.9 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.88. Le général Schlick passant l'inspection des schlagues. lithograph 27.9 x 37.1 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.91. Il n'y a pas pire sourd que celui qui ne veut pas entendre. lithograph 27.9 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.119. Un parasol dans une position difficile. lithograph 25.4 x 30.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.123. Fonctionnaire Chinois veillant au salut de l'Empire!... lithograph 27.8 x 36.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.126. L'Empereur du Maroc consultant le célèbre sorcier Desbarolles. lithograph 27.9 x 36.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1859 No.127. - Voilà un vent qui va joliment contrarier le débarquement des Espagnols !... lithograph 28 x 36.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
1859 Naïvetés:
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| 1859 No.15. La Dame - Oh! mon ami, quel beau turco! Quel beau turco!! Laisse-moi le contempler encore un peu! Le Mari… colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1859 Nos Troupiers (Our Troops):
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| 1859 Entrée en campagne du Général Schlick colour lithograph 26 x 36 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1859 No.2. En Italie colour lithograph 36 x 28 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1859 Pendant L'Armistice (During the Armistice) :
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| 1859 No.2. C'est agréable, tout d'même, après qu'on a été pendant six semaines au feu de s'mettre un peu à l'eau!… colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1859 Souvenir du Grand Festival des Orphéonists
(Remembrance of the Orphéonists Grand Festival):
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| 1859 No.1. Aspect de la salle. colour lithograph 26 x 29 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA * * * * * |
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| Scene from a Comedy oil on panel 33 x 25 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1860 Advice to a Young Artist oil on canvas 41 x 33 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1860 The Lawyers oil on canvas 63.5 x 71.5 cm Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 1860-62c The Imaginary Illness oil on panel 26.7 x 35.2 cm Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA |
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| 1860-63 Les amateurs d'estampes oil on panel 30.8 x 49.6 cm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA |
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| 1860-63 The Artist in front of his work oil on canvas 117.1 x 92 cm Private Collection |
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| 1860-63 The Hypochondriac oil on panel 24.5 x 32.5 cm The Barnes Foundation, Philadelpia, PA |
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| 1860-63 The Imaginary Invalid pen and ink and grey ink wash over black chalk 32.5 x 35 cm Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
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| 1860-63c Outside the Print-Seller's Shop oil on panel 49.5 x 40 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |
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| 1860-63c The Print Collectors oil on panel 31.8 x 40.6 cm Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA |
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| 1860-64 The Print Collectors pen and ink, wash and watercolour over traces of black chalk on paper 34.5 x 31.1 cm Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1860-65 Avant l'Audience ink and watercolour on paper 23 x 22.5 cm The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC |
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| 1860-65 Crispin and Scapin oil on canvas 60.5 x 82 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1860-65 Head of Pasquin oil on panel 22.5 x 17.4 cm Dallas Museum of Art, Texas |