New Parisian butcher's shop, from 'Sketches of the day,' published in Le Charivari, April 22, 1865
Original title: New Parisian butcher's shop, from 'Sketches of the day,' published in Le Charivari, April 22, 1865
kurzbeschreibung
Unlike the many market scenes of the period that treat the daily bustle as harmless, Honoré Daumier sharpens the moment of sale in this 1865 lithograph: a butcher holds out a cut of meat to a woman, and her reaction wavers between surprise and shock. The sheet belongs to the series 'Croquis du jour' and survives in the second printing on newsprint.
Description
Everything in the layout steers toward the encounter between butcher and customer, with the man given clearly more weight than the woman. Cuts of meat hang on the shop wall, and more pieces lie arranged on plates along the counter in front. Black and white with many intermediate greys prevails, as is typical of lithography. The faces are deliberately exaggerated and caricatural, lending the subject a comic edge.
Context
The caricature appeared on 22 April 1865 in the satirical journal Le Charivari. It counts among Daumier's 'Croquis du jour', a series that took up and commented on scenes of everyday Parisian life. That the lithograph exists in its second state points to a reworking of the printing plate. Social and economic upheaval during the Second Empire finds its echo here.
Impact
Caricatural exaggeration makes the sheet both funny and critical. The woman's startled response and the butcher's commanding pose generate a lively, almost theatrical tension. Rendered in black and white, the scene gains in contrast and punch.
Technique
Daumier worked here in lithography on newsprint, a process he used routinely. Lithography allows subtle gradations of grey and fast reproduction, which suited publication in a daily paper. The second state suggests the drawing was corrected or refined before the final edition was printed.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)