ALL: Master Collection List
Nationality
French
Artist Dates
1808-1879
Title of Work
Preview
Date of Work
1842
Medium
Lithograph
Signature
Lower right
Height
19 1/2"
Width
15 1/4"
Depth
1 3/4"
Collection/Provenance
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
Stored: FF_008_G
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
Series: Histoire Ancienne
Published in Le Charivari, Album Comique, and Album Histoire Ancienne
Original Text:
LES NUITS DE PENÉLOPE. De son époux absent l'adorable profil, Toujours à ses doux yeux brillait comme une étoile. Mais pour tramer trois ans et sa ruse et sa toile Il fallait qu'elle eut un fier fil.
(Odyssés Ch. II. Trad. indiscrète de Mr. Villemain).
Translation:
THE PENELOPE NIGHTS. From her absent husband the adorable profile, Always in his sweet eyes shone like a star. But to weave three years and its cunning and its web She had to have a proud thread.
(Odyssés Ch. II. Indiscreet translation of Mr. Villemain).