For the seventh time..... will you please leave my seat? otherwise..., from 'The difficult moments of life'
Original title: For the seventh time..... will you please leave my seat? otherwise..., from 'The difficult moments of life'
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier's 1864 lithograph, with its long title "For the seventh time ... would you please give me my seat? ... otherwise ...," stages a commonplace quarrel in public. The sheet belongs to the series "The Difficult Moments of Life" and survives here as a proof of the second state of three.
Description
Three men carry the picture. One, in top hat and coat, stands and leans over two seated men on a bench; his posture reads as pushy, and the seated pair respond with visible strain. Behind this group a crowd is suggested, watching what unfolds. Bodies and faces in the foreground steer the eye, and tones of black and white dominate the monochrome sheet.
Context
For the satirical journal Le Charivari, Daumier made the series "The Difficult Moments of Life" during the 1860s, taking up the everyday embarrassments and social frictions of bourgeois life under the Second Empire. The lithograph is dated 23 March 1864 and shows his interest in social types and the tensions between people.
Impact
The top-hatted man's overblown gestures and the resigned looks of the seated men provoke comedy and discomfort at once. With so few figures and the contrast between standing and sitting so plainly worked out, the tension feels immediate.
Technique
This is a lithograph, drawn with greasy chalk on a limestone block. The present impression is a proof of the second of three states, pointing to careful reworking of the stone. Fine shading and varied line distinguish Daumier's prints.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)