ALL: Master Collection List
Nationality
French
Artist Dates
1808-1879
Title of Work
Preview
Date of Work
1843-46
Medium
Hand colored lithograph
Signature
Initialed in the lithographic stone.
Height
13"
Width
10"
Collection/Provenance
Art & Design Study Collection
Status
Stored: FF_010_D
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: LES BEAUX JOURS DE LA VIE
Published in Le Charivari & Album Les Beaus Jours de la Vie
Original text: UNE REPRÉSENTATION À BÉNÉFICE.
-Je viens de compter la recette, mon pauvre vieux... elle s'élève à sept cents francs... mes frais sont de sept cents soixante... et cela s'appelle une représentation à bénéfice... amère dérision!.....
English: A BENEFIT PERFORMANCE.
- My old friend, I just calculated the receipts of this performance... they amounted to 700 Francs... my costs amount to 760... and this is called a benefit performance... quite a joke.
Hand-colored lithograph, sur blanc impression, initialed in lithographic stone
Purchased with funds from the Myers Foundations
University Art Collections: Art & Design Study Collection
The print is about actors who have participated in a benefit performance to raise money for a humanitarian cause, but instead of acting benevolent, they complain about their financial expenses. Daumier often criticized attitudes of the bourgeoisie in regard to the genuineness of their charitable efforts.