Artist

Honoré Daumier

Nationality

French

Artist Dates

1808-1879

Title of Work

Moderne Galilée. Et pourtant elle marche.

Preview

Date of Work

1834

Medium

Sur blanc

Signature

Initialed in the lithographic stone.

Identification #

2016.001.0163

Collection/Provenance

Gift from the estate of Lilly Jacobson

Art & Design Study Collection

Status

Stored: Lilly Jacobson Collection Box 1

Location

UND Art Collections Office, Hughes Fine Arts Center

Artist Bio

Honoré Daumier was a prolific painter, printmaker and caricaturist born in 1808 in Marseille, France. In 1822 Daumier studied under Alexandre Lenoir, an artist and archaeologist that was dedicated to saving French monuments during the French Revolution. One year later he went on to attend the Académie Suisse. His works are best known for commenting and critiquing on the 19th century social and political life in France. Honoré Daumier's works can be found at the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Rijksmuseum, and several other prominent collections internationally. The University of North Dakota holds more than 1600 works by Daumier, the vast majority of which are part of the Lilly Jacobson Collection, which can be accessed here: https://commons.und.edu/daumier-prints/.

Aside from making powerful politically-charged images that reflected his pro-republican views, Daumier satirized lawyers, doctors, businessmen, professors, and lifestyles of the bourgeoisie. Although the inscriptions that accompany Daumier’s lithographs were not written by him, one might assume they mostly conveyed the spirit of the artist’s intent behind his images.

Additional Information

Series: La Caricature

Published in La Cariacture

Original text: Moderne Galilée. Et pourtant elle marche.

Notes:

The lithograph targets Jean-Charles Persil, Minister of Justice under King Louis Phillippe, who Daumier viewed as a real-life villain. Persil is seen interrogating a political prisoner, who is chained in his cell because he favors republican causes. An allegorical representation of Liberty appears in the air above him.

The print’s title and its caption liken the political prisoner to Galileo Galilei (1564–1642), who after being forced to recant his claims that the Earth moves around the Sun (rather than the other way around), supposedly also said “and yet it moves.”

Rights

Images are provided for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced for commercial use. Images may be protected by artist copyright. A credit line is required to be used for any public non-commercial educational purpose. The credit line must include, “Image courtesy of the University of North Dakota.”