Idea for summer parliament submitted to Europe by the Charivari, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, July 13, 1868
Original title: Idea for summer parliament submitted to Europe by the Charivari, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, July 13, 1868
kurzbeschreibung
Honoré Daumier made this lithograph in 1868: a satirical summer parliament with figures crouched in bathtubs or lying on shelves. The image alludes to the summer recess of French deputies. It was published on 13 July 1868 in the newspaper Le Charivari.
Description
Figures are spread horizontally across the sheet, with bathtubs anchoring both foreground and background. The print is in black and white with graded greys; light and shadow come solely from the lithographic stroke. Colour is muted, and the drawing dominates.
Context
The sheet appeared during the Second Empire under Napoleon III, a time of restricted press freedom. Daumier drew regularly for Le Charivari, a paper known for its political caricatures. The lithograph takes up the usual parliamentary summer break in France and criticises how deputies work.
Impact
The odd idea of putting parliamentarians in bathtubs strikes the viewer as both comic and critical. The reduced black-and-white rendering draws attention to the figures' poses, which can seem ridiculous. An ironic distance from everyday politics emerges.
Technique
For this sheet Daumier used lithography on newsprint, a common nineteenth-century method for satirical prints. The drawing was transferred to a stone and then printed on paper. This is the second state of two (Delteil), suggesting the plate was reworked.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)