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 - 20 also.
This is part 21 of a major 23-part series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
1870 Actualités (Current Affairs)
featuring the Franco-Prussia War:
1870 L'Album du Siège (The Siege Album):
1870 Actualités (Current Affairs)
featuring the Franco-Prussia War:
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| 1870 Calling their reserve conscripts to the Colours lithograph on wove paper 24.3 x 22.3 cm ( image ) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1870 No.47. Chacun son tour. lithograph 30.2 x 32.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.80. Les 56 ou les trappistes de la politique. colour lithograph 24 x 22 cm ( image ) The Morgan Library and Museum, New York |
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| 1870 No.103. Ah! Quel plaisir d'être électeur! lithograph 36 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Boston Public Library, MA |
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| 1870 No.163. Pauvres commissions extra-parlementaires! lithograph on newsprint 30.8 x 32.7 cm ( image ) |
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| 1870 No.169. Mon champ saccagé… lithograph 34.7 x 27 cm ( sheet ) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
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| 1870 No.171. Le prince de Hohenzollern trouvant que décidément l'escalier est trop raide. lithograph 29.7 x 29.9 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.177. Que diable est-ce qu'ils font là haut! lithograph |
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| 1870 No.181. Projet de costume pour désarmer les ennemis de la statue de Voltaire. lithograph 30.1 x 32.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.183. Un cauchemar de M. de Bismark. lithograph 30.6 x 33.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.191. L'appel de leurs réserves. lithograph 30.1 x 33 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.193. Ceux qui vont mourir te saluent! lithograph 30.1 x 32.3 cm Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.195. - Pauvre vieux, t'es comme moi... lithograph 29.8 x 32.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.209. La République nous appelle, Sachons vaincre ou sachons mourir! lithograph 29.3 x 32.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.211. Le couronnement de son édifice. lithograph 28.7 x 30.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.224. Ça en avait besoin! lithograph 31.7 x 22.1 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.227. S'apercevant qu'il a peut-être vendu la peau de l'ours un peu trop tôt. lithograph 30.9 x 23.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.229. Pauvre Angleterre ! Ce n'est plus un lion, c'est un chien... lithograph 30.7 x 23.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.238. La Paix a tout prix. - Ça ne mord pas! lithograph 31.3 x 22.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.240 (a) A qui le tour? lithograph 30.7 x 23.2 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.240 (b) Le supplice de Tantale... eau comprise. lithograph 31.3 x 22.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.241. Ce que certains journaux appeleraient une élection libre. lithograph 31.5 x 23 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.244. Square Napoléon lithograph on wove paper 21.7 x 17.8 cm ( image ) Brooklyn Museum, New York |
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| 1870 No.246. L'idéal de certains journaux. lithograph 31.5 x 23 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.249. Mon pare-balle, le voilà! lithograph 31 x 22.8 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.252. L'allopathie aérienne. lithograph 30.9 x 23.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.255. Un paysage en 1870. lithograph 31.4 x 22.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.256. - Décidément on ne peut pas leur faire avaler le canard pour du pigeon. lithograph 31.2 x 22.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.262. Le nouveau roi d'Espagne prenant prudement le parti de régner, son sac de voyage à la main. lithograph 30.9 x 22.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.265. L'unité allemande. lithograph 30.8 x 22.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.267. Comment Bismark comprend l'unité allemande. lithograph 31.2 x 23.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.270. - En v'la des bonbons pour le jour de l'an! lithograph 30.8 x 23.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.273. Tu l'as voulu, John Bull! lithograph 31.3 x 23.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.276. John Bull ayant tout l'air de se préparer à faire l'échec à la reine. lithograph 30.7 x 22.7 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.277. Le Jour des Rois. lithograph 30.9 x 23.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.281. Histoire d'un règne. lithograph 30.2 x 32.5 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.282. La Statue du Silence. lithograph 35.6 x 27.4 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.283. - Voilà tes étrennes sers t'en et ne les casse pas. lithograph 34.8 x 27.6 cm ( image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
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| 1870 No.287. Systême proposé par un réactionnaire pour les mieux isoler. lithograph 36.1 x 28.7 cm ( Image ) Musée Carnavalet, Histoire de Paris |
1870 L'Album du Siège (The Siege Album):
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| 1870 German Unity. lithograph on wove paper 21.1 x 18 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1870 The Empire means Peace. lithograph on wove paper 23.1 x 18.7 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1871 Poor France!... The trunk is blasted, but the roots hold! lithograph on wove paper 23.4 x 19.4 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1870 We would have never thought that one day we would sail on this vessel. lithograph on wove paper 22.6 x 17.7 cm The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| 1870 The Rescue oil on canvas 15.8 x 25.3 cm Private Collection |
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| 1870-73 Two Sculptors oil on wood panel 26.6 x 35.5 cm The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC |
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| 1870-75 Doctor Diafoirus oil on canvas 22.5 x 17.2 cm Private Collection |
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| 1870-75 Don Quixote on a White Horse oil on panel 40 x 31 cm Private Collection |
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| 1870-75 Pierrot and the Doctor oil on canvas 41 x 33 cm Oscar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| 1870-75 Pierrot Playing a Mandolin oil on panel 35 x 27 cm Oscar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
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| 1870-75 The Print Collectors oil on canvas 40.9 x 33.2 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts, Ghent, Belgium |
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| 1870-75 Theatre Scene oil on panel 23.8 x 31.8 cm Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection, Los Angeles, CA |
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| 1870-75 Three Heads oil on panel 26.8 x 34.9 cm Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC |
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| 1870-75 Two Lawyers watercolour, pen and ink, and crayon on cream, moderately thick, slightly textured laid paper 34.8 x 30.5 cm The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
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| 1870c A Painter at his Easel oil on panel 11 x 8 cm Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA |
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| 1870c A Painter at his Easel oil on wood panel 33.9 x 26.3 cm The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC |