1834
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Baissez le rideau, la farce est jouée (Lower the Curtain, the Farce is Over) is a 1834 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This drawing shows a big, exaggerated man in a jester’s diamond-patterned suit, standing on a stage. He’s holding a stick and looks like he’s mid-performance, with one foot lifted. Behind him, a small audience sits in the dark, and a woman in a simple dress stands off to the side. The text at the bottom reads *"Lower the Curtain, the Farce is Over"*—a hint this might be poking fun at theater or politics. The sketch style is loose and quick, like a sketchbook doodle but sharper. Next, check out lithography to see how artists made prints like this.
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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