Artwork
Apportez, messieurs, apportez ...
Apportez, messieurs, apportez ... is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1845 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s lithograph titled Apportez, messieurs, apportez presents a compact interior scene in which three men are gathered around a table.
Honoré Daumier’s lithograph titled Apportez, messieurs, apportez presents a compact interior scene in which three men are gathered around a table. One figure is bent over a sheet, writing, while the others listen attentively. The composition is rendered in a single colour range, typical of Daumier’s print work, and the figures are delineated with clear, expressive lines that give the scene a sense of immediacy.
Subject & Meaning
The three men appear absorbed in a serious exchange, suggesting a matter of business or official concern. Behind them a large placard announces a railway project, linking the dialogue to the rapid expansion of transport infrastructure and the attendant bureaucratic negotiations of the mid‑nineteenth century. The work thus reflects Daumier’s interest in the everyday consequences of industrial progress.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the image relies on the contrast of dark ink against a light paper ground to model space and gesture. Daumier’s use of monochrome emphasizes tonal variation rather than colour, allowing the viewer to focus on the figures’ posture and the textual detail of the sign. The crisp line work and subtle shading are characteristic of his printmaking practice.
Context
Created during a period when railways were reshaping French society, the lithograph captures a moment of negotiation or planning that would have been familiar to contemporary audiences. Daumian subjects often involved ordinary citizens confronting modern change, and this piece continues that thematic thread by foregrounding the administrative side of technological advancement.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Honoré-Victorin Daumier (French: ; 26 February 1808 – 10 or 11 February 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the…
Actualités: Un Philantrope à la mode
Monsieur par suite de la fusion
Vous ne prenez rien?
Are you not ordering anything?...
Une querelle d'allemand
Et parlant a sa portière ainsi déclarée...
Ah! Monsieur ...votre bouillon est ...
Le Protecteur
Tiens ... qu'est-ce qu'c'est donc qu'ça? ...
J'ai acheté ... un tonneau de vin ...- Les boursicotières. Me trouvez-vous bien ...
Vous verrez ... rien n'échappera a la baisse ...