1858
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Apparition du ... serpent de la rue Lacépède is a 1858 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This lithograph shows a 19th-century street where people stare up at a long, snake-like creature with a bird head. The crowd’s faces mix fear and wonder as they point and whisper. Thin, scratchy lines make the scene jump alive. Daumier often mocked Paris life in prints. Here he flips it: instead of politics, it’s pure weird fun. The weird shape and big reactions feel like a cartoon come to life. This artist loved social jokes in simple lines. Look next at Daumier, Honoré.
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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