The world fair: Pardon me for not offering you a chair, but you know... Peace: Don't worry, I am not used to being seated, from "News of the Day"
Original title: The world fair: Pardon me for not offering you a chair, but you know... Peace: Don't worry, I am not used to being seated, from "News of the Day"
kurzbeschreibung
This lithograph by Honoré Daumier dates from 1867 and takes the Paris World's Fair as its target. Two allegorical women, labeled Universal Positivity and Peace, are shown in conversation. The print exists in the second of two states and was pulled on newsprint.
Description
On the left a woman settles comfortably into a chair, her dress lettered POSITIVITÉ UNIVERSELLE, a glass in her hand. A second woman stands to the right and offers her another glass. A table with a third glass sits before the pair. The word ACTUALITÉS across the top marks the sheet's origin in a newspaper.
Context
The caricature ran in the French paper Le Charivari on September 16, 1867, as part of the Actualités series. It was occasioned by the 1867 World's Fair in Paris, then widely seen as an emblem of progress and international cooperation. Daumier uses the sheet to needle, with irony, the gap between that optimism and the precarious standing of peace.
Impact
An ironic tension builds between Positivity, enthroned with obvious self-assurance, and the standing, seemingly deferential figure of Peace. Setting their postures against each other brings the vulnerability of peace into focus amid faith in progress. For all the comic tone, the impression left is a thoughtful one.
Technique
The lithograph was printed on newsprint, underlining its function as satirical press graphics. In the Delteil catalogue it is recorded as the second state of two. Precise lines and crisp contours are typical of Daumier's lithographs.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)