![]() |
Portrait of Honore Daumier by Gaspard Félix Tournachon
11.9 x 8.4 cm
Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT |
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 - 22 also.
This is part 23, the final part of a major series on the works of Honoré Daumier:
![]() |
n.d. L'Amateur
black chalk, pen and black ink, grey wash 13.3 x 10.5 cm
The Metropolitan museum of Art, New York |
![]() |
n.d. Les pièces à conviction
pen and ink, wash, black and coloured crayon and gouache 32.4 x 47 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
![]() |
n.d. Lezende Man
pen and brush on paper 16 x 20 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
![]() |
| n.d. Man Bathing a Child |
![]() |
| n.d. Man Bathing a Child |
![]() |
n.d. Man Bathing a Child
oil on canvas 32.7 x 41.3 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA |
![]() |
n.d. Man Carrying a Sack
charcoal on laid paper 30.6 x 42.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Man looking at a painting or print with a magnifying glass
graphite on paper 24.6 x 19.5 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
![]() |
n.d. Mon cher confrère (mon cher collègue - avocats )
crayon, pen and ink, wash, watercolour and gouache
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
![]() |
n.d. Mother and Baby
crayon and pen and black ink with grey and brown wash on laid paper 24.5 x 17.4 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Not Satisfied?
pen and wash
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia |
![]() |
n.d. Nude Man carrying a Bucket
charcoal on light blue paper 27.8 x 20 cm
The British Museum, London |
![]() |
n.d. Old Woman
10 x 8 cm
Private Collection |
![]() |
n.d. Old Woman Seated
watercolour and black crayon on laid paper 10.3 x 8.1 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Profile of a Man
13.3 x 9.9 cm
Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection, Los Angeles, CA |
![]() |
n.d. Prosecutor
pen and ink with watercolour on laid paper 16.9 x 12.7 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Rest in the Country (Sancho Panza)
crayon and brown, blue, and green watercolour on laid paper 8.3 x 14.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Sheet of Studies with a Dancer
black chalk, pen and ink and grey wash 30.2 x 26.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
![]() |
n.d. Sortant du Drame
wood engraving
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. |
![]() |
n.d. Street Musician
18 x 12.3 cm |
![]() |
n.d. Street Show (Paillasse)
black chalk and watercolour on laid paper 36.5 x 25.5 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
![]() |
n.d. Street Singers
22 x 31 cm
Private Collection |
![]() |
n.d. Study of a Man
black chalk with black crayon and traces of graphite on laid paper 9.9 x 8.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Study of Heads
16.7 x 21 cm
Armand Hammer Daumier and Contemporaries Collection, Los Angeles, CA |
![]() |
n.d. The Concierge
15.2 x 10.7 cm
Private Collection |
![]() |
n.d. The Connoisseurs
brown chalk 36.1 x 56.1 cm
The British Museum, London |
![]() |
n.d. The Fugitives
oil on panel 15.5 x 31.1 cm
The Burrell Collection, UK |
![]() |
n.d. The Grandmother
pen and black ink with grey wash on laid paper 14 x 12.8 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. The Imaginary Patient
9.2 x 7.7 cm
Private Collection |
![]() |
n.d. The Prison Choir
oil on canvas 50.2 x 61.2 cm
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD |
![]() |
n.d. The Prodigal Son
charcoal heightened with white on green-grey paper
23.4 x 19 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. The Prodigal Son
pen and black ink with wash on laid paper 8.4 x 6.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. The Ragpicker
wood engraving 5 x 5 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
![]() |
n.d. The Reader
14.5 x 11.5 cm |
![]() |
n.d. The Reading
charcoal and crayon on laid paper 33.7 x 44 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. The Secret
oil on board 26.7 x 35.7 cm
National Museum of Wales, Cardiff, UK |
![]() |
n.d. The Smoker
30.5 x 23.9 cm
Private Collection |
![]() |
n.d. The Third Class Waiting Room
26.5 x 21 cm
Oscar Reinhart Collection, Winterthur, Switzerland |
![]() |
n.d. The Young Courier
black crayon and grey wash on laid paper 15.5 x 23.2 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Three Male Heads
pen and black ink, red and brown wash, over black chalk on beige paper 10.7 x 21.7 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
![]() |
n.d. Torso and Head of a Man
14.6 x 13.3 cm
Musée Calvet, Avignon, France |
![]() |
n.d. Trois personnages en buste
watercolour, charcoal and brush and black ink on paper
4.3 x 10.1 cm |
![]() |
n.d. Trois têtes d'hommes
pen and black ink 15.5 x 19 cm |
![]() |
n.d. Two Lawyers
charcoal and grey wash on laid paper 24 x 19.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Two Lawyers
crayon and stumping with grey and orange wash on laid paper 32.3 x 26.3 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Two Lawyers
watercolour, ink and chalk on paper 13.1 x 19 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
![]() |
n.d. Two Male Heads
conté crayon and wash on laid paper 20.7 x 30.2 cm
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
![]() |
n.d. Two Men
graphite on heavy wove paper 20.1 x 15.8 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
![]() |
n.d. Two Men
pen and wash 10.2 x 9.8 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
![]() |
| n.d. Two Men Sitting at a Table, or The Smokers |
![]() |
n.d. Woman with Veil
pen and black ink over black chalk on laid paper
17.6 x 10.6 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC |
