Nationality
French
Artist Dates
1808-1879
Preview
Date of Work
1842
Medium
Hand colored lithograph
Collection/Provenance
Purchased with funds from the Myers Foundations.
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
Stored: R31
Location
UND Art Collections Repository
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
Les beaux jours de la vie. Les fumeurs de hadchids, 1842. Ah! quel plaisir oriental je commence à éprouver... il me semble que je trotte sur un chameau!... - Et moi... je crois recevoir.. un bastonnade!...
English: Life’s Beautiful Days. The Hashish Smokers. Oh, I am starting to get that marvelous oriental pleasure… I feel like I’m trotting on a camel!… And I believe I’m receiving a beating!
Notes:
Whereas Daumier depicts two friends making giddy recreational use of cannabis, there were more serious experiments with the drug taking place in at the time. From about 1844 to 1849, a group of prominent French writers and artists formed Le Club des Hachichins (The Hashish Eaters' Club).
French psychiatrist Jacques-Joseph Moreau (1804-1884) was also a member of Le Club des Hachichins. In 1845, Moreau’s research on hashish and its effects on the central nervous system were published in his book, Du Hachisch et de l'aliénation mentale (Hashish and Mental Illness).
Included in the Daumier III: Law, Medicine, and Social Satire exhibiiton.
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.”