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| Honoré Daumier by Étienne Carjat 1863 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, CA |
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 - 17 also.
This is part 18 of a major 23-part series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
1867 Actualités (Current Affairs):
1867 Actualités (Current Affairs):
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| 1867 No.18. Une attitude en partie double. lithograph 34.3 x 27.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.19. Nouvelle suspension aérienne lithograph 34.7 x 27.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.20. - Bah ! je ferai le grand tour! lithograph 34.6 x 27.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.25. Galilée très-surpris du nouvel aspect qu'offre la surface de la terre. lithograph 34.6 x 27.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.26. Le Pain de sucre effrayé à l'idée qu'il faudra sucrer non seulement les verres d'eau... lithograph 34.9 x 27.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.31. Galilée - Vous n'auriez peut-être pas été faché, mon bon Josuè, de l'arrêter encore une fois, pour retarder ma représentation. colour lithograph 33 x 28 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1867 No.38. Non! mes enfants!… vous n’ etes pas de cette piece la! lithograph on newsprint 44 x 30.6 cm ( sheet ) Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
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| 1867 No.43. Est-ce bien ainsi que les philosophes demandaient que les nations... lithograph 34.7 x 27.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.47. - Vous trouvez le printemps trop froid cette année... lithograph 35.1 x 26.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.48. Dialogue des morts. - Dites-donc mon cher Galilée, ça n'a pas l'air... lithograph 34.9 x 27.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.49. - Je ne veux pas qu'il ait sa statue, quand je n'ai pas la mienne !... lithograph 38 x 27.9 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.50. Un Baiser de circonstance. lithograph on newsprint 24.1 x 22.8 cm ( image ) Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Pasadena, CA |
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| 1867 No.52. Equilibre Européen. lithograph 38.4 x 27.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.91. - Mon pauvre Mars ! ... j'ai pourtant fait tout ce que j'ai pu. lithograph 37.7 x 28.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.95. Halte !!! lithograph 38 x 28.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.96. - Voilà un inventeur de fusils à aiguille... lithograph 38 x 28.1 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.104. Hier le fusil à aiguille, eux demain; gagnerons-nous au change ? lithograph 37.9 x 28.1 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.128. Elle en a usé du papier la diplomatie en 1867. De quoi faire joliment des cartouches! colour lithograph 35 x 26 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1867 No.143. C'est égal les lauriers ont un peu jauni depuis l'année dernière. lithograph 38.1 x 27.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.145. Aussi forte que le Chinois de l'Hippodrome, la paix! en avale-t-elle de ces lames de sabre! lithograph 37.8 x 28 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.159. Marius in the ruins of Carthage lithograph on newsprint 26.3 x 20.2 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1867 No.162. Which proves that physical imprisonment is not abolished everywhere. lithograph on newsprint 24.6 x 21.3 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1867 No.179 Les augures de la diplomatie n'osant ouvrir l'oiseau-Prussien... lithograph 35.9 x 28.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.180. - C'est dommage que ma chasse a moi soit fermée. lithograph 36 x 28 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.194 – By God, Catherine.... –Monsieur, this Zouave is a healer... it's just for my health! lithograph on newsprint 23.8 x 20.9 cm ( image ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1867 No.200. En Faction hand-coloured lithograph 35.7 x 28 cm ( image ) Honolulu Museum of Art |
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| 1867 No.238. Le véritable Homme masqué lithograph 34.7 x 27.3 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.246. Projet de statue de la Paix pour l'Exposition Universelle. lithograph 34.7 x 27.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.248. Le Temps éprouvant lui aussi le besoin de s'équiper à la mode. lithograph 34.8 x 27.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1867 No.249. Jadis c'était différent. Souvenons nous en! colour lithograph 36 x 28 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1867 No.275. Ce que l'Angleterre appelle un trait-d'union. colour lithograph 31 x 23 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1867 Time too feels the urge for modern equipment lithograph and pen and ink on newsprint 24.7 x 21.4 cm ( image ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1866-67 Les Saltimbanques watercolour 33.7 x 39.7 cm © Victoria and Albert Museum, London |
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| 1866-68 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on canvas 78 x 120 cm Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin |
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| 1866-68 Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on paper 25.3 x 20.1 cm Private Collection |
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| 1866-68 The Reader 17.2 x 19.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1866-68 Third Class 24.8 x 33 cm Private Collection |
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| 1866-68c Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on canvas 40.2 x 33 cm The Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Centre, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 1867 Don Quixote and the Dead Mule oil on canvas 132.5 x 54.5 cm Musée d'Orsay, Paris |
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| 1867 Mother and Child 30.5 x 23.5 cm Private Collection |
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| 1867-68 Boys with a Bird's Nest oil on panel 23 x 32 cm Private Collection |
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| 1867c Don Quixote et Sancho Pansa dans les montagnes oil on panel 29.7 x 45 cm Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| 1867c Don Quixote lisant ( reading ) oil on wood panel 33.6 x 26 cm National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
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| after 1868 The Entombment oil on panel 26 x 34 cm Musée des Beaux-arts de Reims, France |
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| 1868 Crowd in the Street oil on paper 19.5 x 35 cm |
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| 1868 Lunch in the Coutry oil on panel National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK |
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| 1868 Lunch in the Country oil on panel 27 x 37 cm Oskar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| 1868-73 A Page playing the Mandolin black chalk, pen and grey ink with grey wash 32.5 x 21.6 cm The British Museum, London |
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| 1868-73 The Troubadour oil on canvas 83.6 x 56.8 cm © Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio |
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| 1868c Don Quixote and Sancho Panza oil on canvas 51 x 32 cm Neue Pinakothek, Munich |
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| after 1869 The Three Connoisseurs pen and black ink, with brush and black and grey wash, over traces of charcoal, on ivory wove paper 49.3 x 39.2 cm Art Institute of Chicago, IL |
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| 1869 Pierrot with Guitar oil on canvas 34 x 26 cm Private Collection |
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| 1870 Le Sautevage oil on canvas 34.2 x 28.5 cm Hamburg Kunsthalle |
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| 1870 Saltimbanques Resting oil on canvas 54.6 x 65.4 cm Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, CA © Norton Simon Art Foundation |