Triste contenance de la Sculpture placée au milieu de la Peinture, from Le Salon de 1857, published in "Le Charivari"
Original title: Triste contenance de la Sculpture placée au milieu de la Peinture, from Le Salon de 1857, published in "Le Charivari"
kurzbeschreibung
On 22 July 1857, a lithograph by Honoré Daumier appeared in the satirical journal Le Charivari as part of his series Le Salon de 1857. It presents a seated female sculpture surrounded by visitors to an exhibition. The print is the second state of two.
Description
A female sculpture sits in the foreground, gesturing with raised arms. A crowd of people surrounds her, wearing hats and coats in a manner that suggests a formal gathering. Behind the group, further sculptures and paintings point to an exhibition setting. The lithograph is rendered in shades of grey, with even light and no strong shadows. The caricatural touch comes through in the exaggerated expression of the sculpture and in the faces of the onlookers.
Context
The lithograph belongs to the series Le Salon de 1857, which Daumier produced for the satirical newspaper Le Charivari. It pokes fun at the Paris Salon, the official art exhibition held in 1857 at the Palais de l'Industrie. Daumier repeatedly took up the contradiction between idealised art and the way the public actually received it. The series counts among his socially critical works dealing with the art world of his day.
Impact
Through satirical exaggeration the print reads as comic at first glance, since the sculpture, with its gestures, seems like a living person. The even grey tones and calm layout draw the eye to the interplay between the artwork and its audience. The caricature creates a tense blend of irony and reflection on the place of sculpture within an exhibition setting.
Technique
The image is a lithograph, a planographic process in which a drawing is made on stone with greasy chalk. Daumier used this technique to achieve fine gradations of grey and soft transitions. This is the second state, indicating that the printing plate was reworked after the first pull.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)