History revised and corrected by the operetta: Go ahead Chilperic and Agamemnon! (December 11, 1868, Met-Objekt 3518)
Original title: History revised and corrected by the operetta: Go ahead Chilperic and Agamemnon!, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, December 11, 1868
kurzbeschreibung
On December 11, 1868, Le Charivari carried this lithograph by Honoré Daumier: a stage parody in which historical figures are marched through operetta and trimmed to fit along the way. The black-and-white sheet measures 24.3 × 23.9 cm (image area) and lampoons an operetta performance and its famous characters.
Description
Across a stage fitted with curtains and columns crowds a throng of costumed figures, their get-up partly grotesque and their faces pushed into exaggeration. Arms fly up, bodies lean forward or tip off balance, so the layout never settles. Caricature and humor govern the print, with dark passages butting against lighter areas.
Context
Daumier made this sheet for the satirical paper Le Charivari, where he regularly commented on politics and society. It takes up the operetta craze of the day, which liked to twist historical subjects and drag them into comedy. In December 1868, during a busy stretch for the artist, the print appeared in a second edition (Delteil).
Impact
The overwrought figures and their boisterous arrangement produce a cheerful, almost absurd mood. The satire lands on how popular entertainment simplifies and distorts history. You smile looking at it, and yet the criticism of operetta stays sharp.
Technique
The sheet was printed as a lithograph on newsprint, a mass-production method Daumier used all the time. Finely graded lines and shading show his command of lithography, realized here in black and white with gray values. The second edition differs slightly from the first, which matters to collectors.
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Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)