L'envoyé américain obtenant une audience de l'Empereur de la Chine...., from En Chine
Original title: L'envoyé américain obtenant une audience de l'Empereur de la Chine...., from En Chine, published in Le Charivari, October 21, 1859
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier made this lithograph in 1859, showing an American envoy paying his respects to the Emperor of China—a satirical distillation of the event. The print was published on October 21, 1859, in Le Charivari as part of the series 'En Chine'.
Description
On a raised platform, the American envoy leans down toward the ruler with violent gestures. The emperor, seen from behind, wears a headdress and fixes his gaze on the visitor. Behind him crouch several figures, readable as vassals or subjects. The layout is unbalanced: the envoy in front, the emperor behind, and in between exaggerated movements and distorted faces that push the whole into caricature. Black on white, evenly lit, with no visible shading.
Context
The print emerged during a period of growing diplomatic and economic ties between Western powers and China in the mid-nineteenth century. Daumier took aim at contemporary reports of the drawn-out negotiations of Western envoys at the Chinese court. He drew this series, too, for the satirical journal Le Charivari, which regularly carried his political and social caricatures. The 'En Chine' series responded to heightened public interest in China sparked by the Second Opium War (1856–1860).
Impact
The envoy's overwrought posture meets the emperor's calm, producing comic tension. On the surface this caricature amuses, but with irony it comments on the power relations and cultural misunderstandings in the encounter between East and West.
Technique
The print was produced as a lithograph on newsprint, a common process for Daumier's satirical sheets. The technique allowed quick and cheap reproduction for the daily press. Even light distribution and a lack of shading match the capabilities of lithography in those years.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)