← Honoré Daumier

A forbidden swimming pleasure, from 'The bathers,' published in Le Petit Journal pour Rire, August 6, 1864

Original title: A forbidden swimming pleasure, from 'The bathers,' published in Le Petit Journal pour Rire, August 6, 1864

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Date

August 6, 1864

Medium

Lithograph on newsprint; third state of three (Deltiel)

Dimensions

Image: 6 1/8 × 9 13/16 in. (15.5 × 25 cm) Sheet: 7 1/2 in. × 11 in. (19.1 × 27.9 cm)

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962

kurzbeschreibung

A man lurches toward the water's edge in a clumsy, headlong pose, as if about to dive in. This scene comes from Honoré Daumier's caricature series 'Les Baigneurs', published in the satirical journal 'Le Petit Journal pour Rire' in 1864. The lithograph lampoons bourgeois leisure with the tools of exaggeration.

Description

An overblown figure with a distorted, almost panicked expression hurries along the bank as if heading straight into the water. His posture and movement are awkward and therefore comic. Behind him, two occupants of a boat can be made out—one in uniform, the other holding a fish. Buildings line the shore and close off the pictorial space. The image remains monochrome, with even lighting typical of lithography.

Context

For the Parisian weekly 'Le Petit Journal pour Rire', published between 1856 and 1890, Daumier drew the series 'Les Baigneurs'. The sheet appeared on August 6, 1864, and takes a satirical look at bourgeois bathing of those years. Delteil records it as the third of three print states. Daumier's trademark was such critical images of everyday life under the Second Empire.

Impact

The exaggeration of the runner's pose and expression produces the comic effect: the twisted gaze and the clumsy run expose the absurdity of the situation and invite a smile. Despite the static printing technique, the image remains lively and in motion.

Technique

The sheet was printed as a lithograph on newsprint—a process in which a drawing is applied to the stone with greasy chalk and then pulled. Daumier often used this technique for his satirical series. That it is the third of three states points to repeated reworking of the stone. The image area measures 15.5 × 25 cm, the sheet 19.1 × 27.9 cm.

AI-generated description text

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