Article 27 du Réglement, from Les Portiers de Paris
Original title: Article 27 du Réglement, from Les Portiers de Paris, published in Le Charivari, December 4, 1858
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier's lithograph 'Artikel 27 der Hausordnung' (Article 27 of the House Rules) was made on 4 December 1858 and belongs to the series 'Les Portiers de Paris'. It presents a comic slice of everyday life: a concierge and a woman at the entrance of a building.
Description
Two figures dominate the image. On the left stands a man in a plain jacket and trousers, his arms flung wide in surprise or irritation. Facing him is a woman in a long garment holding a basket; she turns slightly aside, her gaze fixed on the man. The setting is bare, with a door and a corridor just legible enough to suggest an interior. The layout puts the encounter between the two at its heart, and the man, taller and more emphatic in gesture, clearly has the upper hand.
Context
The series 'Les Portiers de Paris' appeared in the satirical journal 'Le Charivari', for which Daumier worked regularly. It took aim at the daily life and quirks of Parisian concierges, who held a central social role in the nineteenth-century apartment building. The title 'Artikel 27 der Hausordnung' alludes to the strict rules whose observance the porters enforced. Daumier worked in an era when lithography was firmly established as a mass medium for political and social caricature.
Impact
The caricatural exaggeration of gesture and expression makes the print immediately funny. The lively arrangement and the clear opposition of the two figures produce a scene that feels theatrical and invites a smile.
Technique
Black chalk drawn on limestone, then printed: that is the lithographic process behind this sheet, here in the second state of two known impressions (Delteil). Delicate strokes and graduated shading show how confidently Daumier handled the medium.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)