S'assurant qu'il n'y a pas de féniant sous son lit
Original title: S'assurant qu'il n'y a pas de féniant sous son lit, from Actualités, published in Le Charivari, December 21, 1866
kurzbeschreibung
Unlike many caricatures of the period, which aim their barbs straight at political opponents, Honoré Daumier's lithograph of 1866 turns to a private panic: a man shines a torch under his bed in search of Fenians. The sheet appeared on 21 December 1866 in the satirical journal Le Charivari and belongs to the series Actualités.
Description
Peering out from behind a curtain, the man aims his torch directly at the viewer. His tense posture and worried expression are comically overstated. The curtain hides parts of the picture, while the lamplight pushes the foreground into view. Delicate lines and shading in this black-and-white lithograph give the figures a sense of volume.
Context
The caricature grew out of Fenian activity in the 1860s, when Irish nationalists carried out attacks in Britain and North America. Le Charivari, where the Actualités series ran, was known for political and social satire. This print picks up the fear of Fenian bombings that was felt at the time, and noted in France as well.
Impact
The humour comes from making exaggerated fear of a vague threat look ridiculous. The strained pose combined with such an ordinary hiding place as under the bed makes the scene absurd and yet understandable.
Technique
The print was made by lithography, a planographic process in which the artist draws on stone with greasy chalk. The varied shading and precise lines show Daumier's practised handling of the technique. This is the second state of two (Delteil).
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)