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 - 15 also.
This is part 16 of a major 23-part series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
1863 À La Brasserie:
1864 Croquis de chasse (Hunting Sketches):
1864 Croquis pris au théâtre (Sketches made at the Theatre):
1864 En Chemins de Fer (The Railway):
1865 Actualités (Current Affairs):
1865 Les Spirites (Spirits):
1865 Physionomies Prises des Chemins de Fer
(Physionomies taken from the railways):
1863 À La Brasserie:
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| 1863 No.3. Dernières Nouvelles colour lithograph 27 x 36 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1864 No.4. La Muse de la Brasserie lithograph with colour wash on wove paper 20.4 x 26.2 cm Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT 1864 Actualités (Current Affairs): |
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| 1864 No.33. Paris grippé. lithograph 36.3 x 27.8 cm ( image ) National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1864 No.37. - Eh ! bien, mon brave anglais, vous qui aimez tant à voyager... colour lithograph 32 x 24 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1864 No.40. Le Départ de l'Hiver. - Comment, vous songez déjà à nous quitter ?... vous notre meilleur allié !... lithograph 36.2 x 27.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1864 No.464. Vot'bourgeois est-y pour la liberté de la boucherie?… lithograph on newsprint 23.6 x 27.6 cm ( sheet ) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
1864 Croquis de chasse (Hunting Sketches):
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| 1864 No.1. Eux au moins ne reviennent pas bredouilles… colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1864 No.2. J'ai donc tué un perdreau! Tiens c'est un moineau! colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1864 Croquis pris au théâtre (Sketches made at the Theatre):
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| 1864 Un Nouveau Théatre Modèl. lithograph on newsprint 24.1 x 22.5 cm ( image ) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA |
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| 1864 No.1. Les Spectateurs de l'Orchestre hand-coloured lithograph 32.9 x 25.9 cm ( sheet ) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1864 No.2. On dit que les Parisiens sont difficile à satisfaire… lithograph 24.8 x 23.2 cm ( image ) Museum of FIne Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1864 No.3. A Literary Discussion in the Second Balcony. lithograph 24.8 x 22.9 cm ( image ) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
1864 En Chemins de Fer (The Railway):
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| 1864 No.3. Ils ont l'air de se concerter. Je suis bien faché d'être monté dans ce wagon! Et dire qu'il n'y a pas moyen de faire arrêter le train! colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1865 Actualités (Current Affairs):
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| 1865 No.238. Entre recors colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public LIbrary, MA |
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| 1865 No.243. Chez un usurier colour lithograph 30 x 24 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1865 No.248. Un Banquet d'Hippophages. lithograph on newsprint 23.2 x 22.4 cm ( image ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
1865 Les Spirites (Spirits):
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| 1865 No.2. Eh! bien, mon ami, a quoi penses-tu donc de te relever comme ça au milieu de la nuit, serais tu indisposé?... colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
1865 Physionomies Prises des Chemins de Fer
(Physionomies taken from the railways):
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| 1865 No.1. Ah! Enfin voila le train! colour lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1863-67 Trio d'amateurs oil on wood 21.5 x 27.5 cm Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris |
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| 1863-67c The Chess Players oil on panel 24 x 32 cm Musée du Petit Palais, Paris |
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| 1863c Art Lovers 26.2 x 19.3 cm Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1863c The Laundress oil on panel 49 x 33.5 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris © RMN-Grand Palais |
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| 1863c The Laundress oil on wood 48.9 x 33 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1863c The Smoker oil on panel 27 x 34.5 cm Foundation E.G. Bührle Collection, Zurich |
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| 1864 after Don Quixote and the Dead Mule oil on wood 24.8 x 46 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1864 At the Theatre oil on canvas 97 x 89 cm Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich |
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| 1864 Good Friends 23.6 x 30.4 cm Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1864 The First Class Carriage watercolour, ink wash and charcoal on slightly textured, moderately thick, cream wove paper 20.5 x 30 cm The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1864 The Omnibus ink, watercolour, and black lithographic crayon on cream, moderately thick, moderately textured woven paper 21.2 x 30.2 cm The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1864 The Second Class Carriage watercolour, ink wash and charcoal on moderately textured, moderately thick, cream wove paper 20.5 x 30.1 cm Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1864 The Third Class Carriage watercolour, ink wash and charcoal on slightly textured, moderately thick, cream laid paper 20.3 x 29.5 cm Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1864-65 Sideshow charcoal, brush and India ink, watercolour and gouache on laid paper 29.6 x 39.8 cm Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia |
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| 1864-65 Street Singers 33.5 x 23.5 cm Foundation EG Bührle Collection, Zurich |
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| 1864-65 Street Singers 34 x 26 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Petit Palais |
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| 1864-65 The Waiting Room 21.9 x 17.1 cm A.M. Kaplan Collection, New York |
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| 1865 Mother with Child oil on canvas 40 x 33 cm Private Collection |
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| 1865 The incomparable somnabulist" from 'Memories of the celebration at St. Cloud' published in Le Petit Journal pour Rire lithograph on newsprint 14 x 24.2 cm ( image ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1865-66 L’attente à la gare crayon and watercolour with some pen and ink 28 x 34 cm © Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1865-66 Third-Class Carriage 23.5 x 33 cm Private Collection |
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| 1865-66 Waiting at the Station 28 x 34 cm © Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1865-66c Study for "Saltimbanques Resting" oil on panel 29.8 x 37.5 cm Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA © Norton Simon Art Foundation |
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| 1865-67 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Riding pen and ink, brush and ink, and watercolour over graphite on wove paper 14.8 x 28 cm Museum of Art Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI |
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| 1865-67 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza Riding study |
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| 1865-67c Clown Playing a Drum black chalk, pen and ink, wash, watercolour, gouache, and conte crayon on paper 33.5 x 25.5 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1865-68 Advice to a Young Artist oil on canvas 41.3 x 33 cm National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
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| 1865-68 The Amateurs black crayon with watercolour and gouache heightened with white gouache on cream, moderately thick, slightly textured wove paper 32.4 x 30.8 cm The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1865-70 Don Quixote Reading oil on canvas 82.2 x 65 cm National Museum Wales, Cardiff, UK |
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| 1865-70 Head of a Clown oil on panel 22 x 16.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1865-70 Politics 37.7 x 29 cm Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| 1865-70 Spectators in the Theatre oil on panel 26.5 x 35 cm Kunsthalle Hamburg, Germany |
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| 1865-70 The Two Colleagues ( Lawyers ) watercolour, pen and black ink and gouache on paper 25.7 x 19.1 cm Brooklyn Museum, New York |
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| 1865-70 Two Heads 9.2 x 17.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1865-70 Waiting at the Station 25.2 x 29 cm Private Collection |
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| 1865-70 Worker with a Wheelbarrow 18.6 x 13.4 cm Private Collection |