1846
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Ce que le bourgeois est convenu de nommer une... distraction is a 1846 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows two men hunched over newspapers in a dim, cramped space. One sits in a wooden chair, squinting at his paper, while the other stands, holding a rolled-up sheet. Their clothes are plain and worn—no fancy details. A hat sits on the chair’s seat, and the walls look like rough stone or plaster. The title at the bottom hints this isn’t just a quiet moment—it’s a joke about how the wealthy call simple pleasures "distractions." The artist used quick, sketchy lines to make it feel urgent and real. Next, check out lithography to see how this print was made.
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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