← Honoré Daumier

Monsieur, auriez vous la bonté de me dire..., from Croquis d'Été

Original title: Monsieur, auriez vous la bonté de me dire..., from Croquis d'Été, published in Le Charivari, August 5, 1858

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

August 5, 1858

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)

Dimensions

Sheet: 9 15/16 × 14 5/16 in. (25.2 × 36.3 cm) Image: 8 1/16 × 10 1/4 in. (20.5 × 26 cm)

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953

kurzbeschreibung

On 5 August 1858, Le Charivari ran Daumier's lithograph 'Monsieur, auriez-vous la bonté de me dire...' as part of the 'Croquis d'Été' series. The sheet brings together a burly, nearly undressed man and a well-dressed gentleman in a top hat at a public bathing establishment. Printed as a lithograph on newsprint, the work survives in the second of two states.

Description

The arrangement is deliberately lopsided. On the left a muscular man in short trunks stands with his gaze turned upward, while on the right a gentleman in a suit and top hat comes toward him. Bathers in the water can be made out further back, placing the encounter at a swimming pool. Rendered in black and white with no visible shadows and an even spread of light, the sheet has the look typical of lithography. Exaggerated body proportions and an inserted caption heighten the caricatural bite.

Context

The 'Croquis d'Été' (summer sketches) appeared in 1858 in the satirical daily Le Charivari, for which Daumier regularly drew political and social caricatures. This lithograph takes up the social contrasts and the vogue for summer holidays in nineteenth-century Paris. Daumier uses the bathing scene to expose the absurdity of bourgeois convention and the gulf between social classes.

Impact

What makes the sheet funny is the clash between the labourer's muscular body and the stiff, formal dress of the bourgeois gentleman. The overdone proportions and the oddity of the meeting prompt a smile and, at the same time, invite reflection on social hierarchies.

Technique

Drawn in lithography on newsprint and printed in the second of two known states, the process gave Daumier room for delicate lines and graded greys. The newspaper paper underlines the quick, everyday character of the publication.

AI-generated description text

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