← Honoré Daumier

The results of bad dramatic timing, from 'Theater sketches,' published in Le Charivari, 1864

Original title: The results of bad dramatic timing, from 'Theater sketches,' published in Le Charivari, 1864

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

1864

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)

Dimensions

Image: 9 5/16 × 8 1/2 in. (23.7 × 21.6 cm) Sheet: 11 9/16 × 11 13/16 in. (29.3 × 30 cm)

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962

kurzbeschreibung

Unlike many theatre caricatures of the day, which aim their barbs either at the stage or at the audience, this lithograph by Honoré Daumier takes in both at once: an actress throws herself into a grand gesture while the spectators behind her answer with reactions pushed well past the natural. Made in 1864, the sheet belongs to the 'Theaterskizzen' (Theatre Sketches) published in the satirical journal Le Charivari.

Description

Downstage, a woman stands with one arm raised, her loose gown caught mid-motion; the curling hair and the energetic pose drive home the theatrical entrance. Behind her, spectators' faces waver between laughter and shrieking, an exaggeration on which the joke of the picture rests. The print stays black and white, with contrast carried entirely by line and shading. Distorted proportions and overwrought expressions mark it as caricature.

Context

Daumier drew regular series for the French satirical paper Le Charivari, turning his eye on social and cultural life, and the Theatre Sketches are one of them. Made in Paris in 1864, they struck a nerve of the moment, since the bourgeois theatre audience and the art of acting were then frequent targets of satirical attack. Two states of the work exist, and this impression reproduces the second. Lithography let Daumier respond quickly to current events.

Impact

The humour grows out of the gap between the actress's pathos and the laughing, shouting public. Exaggerated gesture and expression sharpen the satirical edge and set one thinking about the distance between stage drama and real life. The layout draws the eye to the central figure, while the spectators' reactions deepen the irony of the scene.

Technique

The sheet was printed as a lithograph on newsprint: fat crayon is drawn on a stone, from which impressions are then pulled. This print corresponds to the second of two states, which points to later reworking of the stone. The nuanced linework and the shading show Daumier's sure command of a medium suited to fast, direct reproduction.

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