Lot 520
HONORE DAUMIER (1808-1879)
A TRAVERS LES ATELIERS: FICHTRE
EPATANT
SAPRISTI
SUPERBE
ÇA PARLE
(Delteil 3246)
Lithograph, 1862, printed by Bertauts, Paris, scarce
Image 24.7 x 20.6cm.
* Daumier used the medium of lithography with devastating effect. The technique complemented perfectly his fluent draughtsmanship and he produced over 4000 prints that garnered widespread public reaction. His satirical jabs at public officers, including an attack on King Louis Philippe (that resulted in a six month prison term in 1832), broadened later in his career to include assaults upon the haughty bombast of professors, doctors and members of the legal profession. His acerbic depictions of the educated middle classes complemented what Daumier perceived to be these professionals' pretentious pursuits. In this rare subject, art connoisseurs are expressing a blend of admiration and consternation as they pronounce excitably upon an (unseen) work of art on an easel. The 1860s witnessed the birth of Modernism in France after the conflicting ambitions of Neo-Classicism, Romanticism and Realism earlier in the century. It was an era of dramatic cultural upheaval and Daumier's cynical eye has caught perfectly the blend of reactions: an apparent admiration of modernity from some admixing a strong measure of distaste from others.
