← Honoré Daumier

The game with the candle extinguisher, A new pastime: They won't be able to reach it .... the Republic's arms are longer than theirs, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, April 1-2, 1872

Original title: The game with the candle extinguisher, A new pastime: They won't be able to reach it .... the Republic's arms are longer than theirs, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, April 1-2, 1872

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

April 1–2, 1872

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)

Dimensions

Image: 9 3/16 × 8 1/16 in. (23.3 × 20.4 cm) Sheet: 11 7/16 × 11 3/4 in. (29 × 29.8 cm)

Credit line

Gift of Harry G. Friedman, 1954

kurzbeschreibung

Four figures stretch upward in an April 1872 caricature by Honoré Daumier, reaching for a candle with long candlesticks. The print belongs to the series 'Tagesneuigkeiten' and appeared in the satirical journal Le Charivari. It is drawn as a political caricature in black and white.

Description

Your eye is pulled straight up to the candle's tip, where four figures grasp with outstretched arms and long, slanting sticks. Their poses are comically exaggerated, and their hairstyles and ornaments follow the fashion of the day, sharpening the mockery further. Scraps of text and sketches surface between the figures, pointing back to the newspaper press. The layout presses toward the middle, where the candle draws everything to itself as an emblem.

Context

The sheet dates from 1872, shortly after the Franco-Prussian War and the Paris Commune, when the Third Republic was still politically unsteady. Daumier contributed such caricatures to Le Charivari regularly. The caption alludes to the Republic's arms reaching farther than those of the figures shown, and can be read as a comment on the political disputes of the time.

Impact

At first the absurd situation, with its twisted bodies, seems funny, almost like a slapstick routine. The caption lays an ironic distance over it that sets the viewer thinking about the political point. Because everything stays black and white and the lines are set clearly, the print strikes the eye immediately.

Technique

The sheet was printed as a lithograph on newsprint, in the second of two states (Delteil). This process allowed fine lines and rapid reproduction for the daily press. The black-and-white execution matches Daumier's satirical printmaking of those years.

AI-generated description text

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