← Honoré Daumier

Aspect des rues de Paris depuis..., from Locataires et Propiétaires, published in Le Charivari, October 24, 1856

Original title: Aspect des rues de Paris depuis..., from Locataires et Propiétaires, published in Le Charivari, October 24, 1856

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

October 24, 1856

Medium

Lithograph; third state of three (Delteil)

Dimensions

Sheet: 9 5/8 × 14 1/8 in. (24.4 × 35.8 cm) Image: 7 7/8 × 10 5/16 in. (20 × 26.2 cm)

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953

kurzbeschreibung

Honoré Daumier's 1856 lithograph stages a chaotic Paris street scene. It belongs to the series Locataires et Propriétaires (Tenants and Landlords) and survives in the third of three states (Delteil). What Daumier puts on view is an exaggerated account of a violent incident in everyday big-city life.

Description

Across the foreground floor several figures lie sprawled, some plainly wounded or dying. One figure at the middle throws up both arms, as if fending something off or calling for help. Just to the right stands someone in a defensive posture, while further back other people mill about in assorted poses, a few of them seemingly dancing. At the upper left a figure with a stick points at another, and at the upper right a face glowers from a window. Everything stays in a single tone, evenly lit and wholly shaped by the caricatural manner, with distorted features and a restless layout.

Context

The print appeared in the satirical journal Le Charivari on 24 October 1856. Daumier made it for the series Locataires et Propriétaires, in which he worked through the tense relationship between renters and owners in nineteenth-century Paris. The view can be read as an echo of the social friction and cramped housing of a fast-growing city.

Impact

The overwrought figures and dramatic staging hit the viewer at once. Daumier's blend of violence and grotesque humor leaves an unsettling impression and prompts reflection on the social grievances of the period.

Technique

Daumier worked in lithography, drawing with greasy chalk directly onto the stone. That method allowed him fine strokes and gradations of shading, which carry the expressive force of his figures. The third state represents the final form of the print.

AI-generated description text

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