Driver... driver!... what are you thinking?, from "The Coachmen of Paris"
Original title: Driver... driver!... what are you thinking?, from "The Coachmen of Paris"
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier's 1864 lithograph presents a coachman on his box who seems lost in thought. The sheet belongs to the series "Die Kutscher von Paris" and stays black and white, drawn in a loose, sketch-like hand.
Description
Up front a driver sits enthroned in top hat and coat, staring into nothing, his face caught between brooding and a faint unease. Luggage piles up on the carriage, among it a crate and a sack. Behind, blurred house fronts suggest the city. A caption beneath the image quotes the French phrase that plays on the driver's thoughts.
Context
The lithograph was made in 1864 for satirical papers, within the series on Paris coachmen. Daumier regularly took up the city's daily life there and its social imbalances. This is the second of three states, printed on newsprint.
Impact
A moment of absence meets the passenger's impatience, and from that contrast grows a comic streak that also gives pause. Graded shadows and sparse contours keep the sheet lively, as if dashed off in haste.
Technique
Lithography on newsprint was used, a process that carries thin strokes as readily as soft tonal gradations and so makes Daumier's drawing hand visible. What survives is an impression of the second state; three states in all are recorded.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)