1840
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
A bon chat bon rat is a 1840 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
In this black-and-white print, a man swings a chair at another who ducks fast. Their faces twist—one snarls, one flinches—full of sharp angles. Daumier used lithography to get bold blacks and rough lines fast. He sold these prints cheap to regular readers who laughed at politics. The scene feels like a snapshot of street fights you still see today. Look up lithography next—it’s the trick behind this punch of ink.
Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870.
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