Artwork
Changeant son cheval borgne pour un aveugle

Changeant son cheval borgne pour un aveugle is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1866 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1866, this lithograph on newsprint titled *Changeant son cheval borgne pour un aveugle* exemplifies Honoré Daumier’s use of printmaking to comment on contemporary French life. The work presents a single figure on a horse, rendered with stark lines that convey motion and tension, and it continues the artist’s long‑standing engagement with satire as a vehicle for social critique.
Subject & Meaning
The scene shows a rider, hat and coat visible, grasping a whip while attempting to control a horse whose eyes are deliberately covered, suggesting blindness. The exaggerated expression of the rider and the animal’s impediment serve as a visual metaphor for misguided authority or leadership, a recurring theme in Daumier’s caricatures of power structures.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the image relies on bold contour lines and varied shading to model volume and convey kinetic energy. The choice of newsprint as support underscores the work’s immediacy and its intended circulation among a broad readership, while the stark contrast typical of Daumier’s prints heightens the satirical impact.
History & Provenance
Daumier produced the print during a prolific period of contribution to satirical journals such as *La Caricature* and *Le Charivari*. Though originally distributed in these periodicals, the lithograph later entered private collections before being acquired by public institutions, reflecting its continued relevance as a document of 19th‑century French political discourse.
Context
The mid‑1860s in France were marked by shifting power dynamics under the Second Empire, with growing republican sentiment. Daumier’s republican democratic outlook informed his relentless lampooning of monarchy, aristocracy, and clergy, and this lithograph fits within that broader campaign of visual protest against established authority.
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.















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