Working in the garden can be fun... but there are days when it is just too damn hot!, from "The joys of country life"
Original title: Working in the garden can be fun... but there are days when it is just too damn hot!, from "The joys of country life"
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier's lithograph from 1865 presents two figures in a garden who are plainly wilting under the summer heat. The sheet belongs to the series 'Les Plaisirs de la Campagne' (The Pleasures of Country Life) and was printed on newsprint. It survives as the second of two states, as recorded by Delteil.
Description
Two figures stand amid the greenery of a garden. On the left, someone in a hat and jacket; on the right, a person in hat and suit who presses both hands to their head as if bracing against the sun. Plants and a fence close off the space behind them. Beneath the figures, a French caption remarks on the heat. Everything is drawn in a single tone, in the register of caricature.
Context
The print comes from 'Les Plaisirs de la Campagne', a series in which Daumier skewers the pleasures and vexations of country living. It was published on September 14, 1865, likely in a satirical journal. There his critique of the bourgeois fantasy of an idyllic rural life comes through.
Impact
What catches the eye first is the comic despair of the figure on the right, clutching their head for shelter — it draws a laugh on first look. Such overstatement is typical of Daumier's caricatures. At the same time, the everyday grind of garden work takes on an ironic undertone.
Technique
The lithograph was printed on newsprint. Fine hatching and graded tusche tones give the figures and the garden a sense of depth. This impression is the second state of the print, as documented by Delteil.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)