Artwork
Ah! Mon cher monsieur, vous m'avez ...
Ah! Mon cher monsieur, vous m'avez ... is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1864 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s 1864 lithograph, titled Ah! Mon cher monsieur, vous m'avez, presents a brief encounter between two figures locked in a handshake. One figure is attired in contemporary urban wear—a dark suit and spectacles—while the other adopts the garb of an ancient Roman soldier. The composition juxtaposes everyday life with classical heroism, a hallmark of Daumier’s satirical eye.
Subject & Meaning
The work plays on the contrast between the ordinary bourgeois man and a costumed figure evoking antiquity, suggesting a tongue‑in‑cheek commentary on pretensions of status and the performative nature of social rituals. By pairing a modern professional with a theatrical Roman, Daumier hints at the absurdity of self‑importance and the fluid boundaries between genuine authority and affectation.
Technique & Style
Executed in lithography, the image relies on the fluid, expressive lines characteristic of Daumier’s printmaking. The medium allows for swift, gestural drawing that captures the immediacy of the handshake, while the stark black‑and‑white contrast emphasizes the differing costumes. The artist’s loose handling of detail conveys both the humor and the social observation embedded in the scene.
History & Provenance
Created in the mid‑1860s, the lithograph was part of Daumier’s prolific output of satirical prints that commented on French society during the Second Empire. It circulated among the artist’s usual audience of newspaper readers and collectors of caricature, and later entered museum collections that focus on 19th‑century French graphic art.
Artist & collection
Artist
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.
