← Honoré Daumier Honoré Daumier — Oh, my son, what a wonderful scene! You see here the exhibition hall of the temple of peace! –Yes, papa, and the military academy too!, from "World Exhibitions"

Honoré Daumier — Oh, my son, what a wonderful scene! You see here the exhibition hall of the temple of peace! –Yes, papa, and the military academy too!, from "World Exhibitions"

Oh, my son, what a wonderful scene! You see here the exhibition hall of the temple of peace! –Yes, papa, and the military academy too!, from "World Exhibitions"

Original title: –Oh, my son, what a wonderful scene! You see here the exhibition hall of the temple of peace! –Yes, papa, and the military academy too!, from "World Exhibitions"

Artist: Honoré Daumier
Date: ca. 1867
Medium: Lithograph on newsprint
Dimensions: Image: 7 5/8 × 7 1/16 in. (19.3 × 17.9 cm) Sheet: 10 1/8 × 12 3/16 in. (25.7 × 31 cm)
Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stuart P. Feld, 1983

kurzbeschreibung

Honoré Daumier made this lithograph around 1867 as part of his series 'Weltausstellungen' (World Exhibitions). An adult and a child both point toward a temple-like rotunda behind them, while the caption has father and son trading exclamations about the Peace Temple and the military academy. The sheet was printed on newsprint and appeared in the satirical journal 'Le Charivari'.

Description

An adult stands in the foreground with one hand raised, as though explaining something, and a child beside him jabs a finger toward a round colonnaded building that evokes an ancient temple. Both wear conventional dress. The setting stays spare, opening onto a bare landscape. Crisp caricatural outlines define this black-and-white lithograph.

Context

This print belongs to Daumier's 'Weltausstellungen' series, published in 'Le Charivari'. It came out around the Paris World's Fair of 1867, where countless exhibition halls and military installations were on display. Across the series Daumier took up the period's enthusiasm for progress and education by setting a child's naive view against an adult's instructive pronouncements. The sheet reflects contemporary debate over the place of learning and the military under the Second Empire.

Impact

Clean lines and economical rendering make the image legible at once. The comic mismatch between the child's excitement and the adult's solemn explanation produces an ironic tension. A simple layout steers the eye to the interplay between the two figures and the temple-like structure behind them.

Technique

Lithography on newsprint was a standard process for Daumier's satirical work, allowing fast, inexpensive reproduction for magazine printing. The black-and-white rendering, with clear contours and fine hatching, is characteristic of his printmaking.

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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)