Peace, as strong as the Chinese at the hippodrome... will she also be able to swallow sabre blades?, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"
Original title: Peace, as strong as the Chinese at the hippodrome... will she also be able to swallow sabre blades?, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier's lithograph of 1867 places an allegory of Peace on a stage, lance in hand. Published in the satirical weekly Le Charivari, the print takes aim at the political frictions of those years.
Description
The eye goes first to the female figure in a robe marked 'CAPA', who holds a lance and looks upward. She stands on a platform where a ball and a shield lie; behind her a crowd presses in. The arrangement recalls a hippodrome, and the caption along the lower edge speaks of a 'Chinese man in the hippodrome'.
Context
The sheet appeared in Le Charivari on 1 August 1867 as part of the series 'Actualités'. Daumier drew on the Paris World's Fair of 1867, where a 'Chinese sword swallower' also performed, and used that act as a parable for Napoleon III's peace policy. The caricature asks whether peace can last given Europe's military buildup.
Impact
An ironic tension arises from the collision of political allegory and popular entertainment. The calm, almost monumental bearing of the figure of Peace contrasts with the absurd question of swallowing sabers, prompting reflection on peace's precarious position.
Technique
Executed as a lithograph on newsprint, the work survives in the second state of two (Delteil). The black-and-white process allows delicate lines and shading that bring out the figures and the hippodrome's architecture in detail.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)