← Honoré Daumier

Already on her feet again!

Original title: Already on her feet again!, from "News of the day"

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

July 19, 1871

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)

Dimensions

Image: 10 1/16 × 8 9/16 in. (25.5 × 21.8 cm) Sheet: 11 1/4 × 11 1/8 in. (28.6 × 28.3 cm)

Credit line

Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1957

kurzbeschreibung

Honoré Daumier made this lithograph, "On Our Feet Again!" (Schon wieder auf den Beinen!), on 19 July 1871 for the series "News of the Day." An allegorical woman standing in for France carries a shield marked EMPRUNT, or loan; around her several figures talk among themselves.

Description

At the top a woman in a dress holds up a shield reading EMPRUNT. Her upright stance suggests a country rising out of crisis. Below her a group of men has gathered and argues — some in hats or caps, others in uniforms. Tones stay within grey and white, and the light falls evenly, with no heavy shadows.

Context

The print appeared in July 1871, right after the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune. Daumier takes up French state debt and postwar rebuilding. France personified presents a loan, a nod to the financial policy of the Third Republic. The lithograph belongs to "News of the Day," a series commenting on current political events.

Impact

The clear layout and the symbolic figure of France make the caricature easy to read at a glance. Allegory set against realistically drawn people produces a satirical tension: the gravity of the situation comes with comic touches.

Technique

Lines and hatching, the lithographer's own tools, carry the drawing here; shading builds the figures without much tonal range. The print was pulled on newsprint and survives in the second of two known states (per Delteil). That linear handling sharpens the caricatural side of the figures.

AI-generated description text

Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)