Artwork
Eh! Bien, comment trouvez-vous cela?
Eh! Bien, comment trouvez-vous cela? is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1858 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s lithograph titled “Eh! Bien, comment trouvez‑vous cela?” presents a compact interior scene in which three formally dressed men occupy a restaurant table. Their postures are rigid and their expressions solemn, conveying a moment of restrained dialogue that hints at a subtle satire of contemporary manners.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on the three gentlemen, each in a dark suit, with one leaning forward as if to address the others. A solitary waiter stands unnoticed in the background, emphasizing the men’s self‑absorption. The tableau suggests a staged interaction, inviting viewers to question the authenticity of social performance in mid‑nineteenth‑century Paris.
Technique & Style
Executed in lithography, the work relies on bold, clean lines and a limited tonal range to delineate clothing, furniture, and facial features. Daumier’s characteristic use of exaggerated stiffness and crisp shading enhances the caricatural quality, while the print’s flat surface underscores its satirical intent.
History & Provenance
Created during Daumier’s prolific period of social commentary prints, the lithograph was produced in the 1860s, a time when the artist frequently targeted bourgeois pretensions. Original impressions were issued in small runs for the Parisian market and later entered museum collections as examples of his critical engagement with everyday life.
Context
The image reflects the broader cultural climate of Second‑Empire France, when public dining spaces became arenas for displaying status. Daumier’s focus on the artificiality of such settings aligns with his other works that lampoon the affectations of the rising middle class.
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.
Un invité à un dîner d'hippophages: Vous offrirai-je encore un peu? C'est excellent, n'est-ce pas?
Le déjeuner du patron le sixiéme clerc ...
Une boisson qui ne monte jamais à tête
Scène d'Hippophagie
On flaire la marchandise... avant de la mécaniser!...
Dans un cabinet de la maison d'or
Monsieur le concierge, allant en soirée