Artwork
Facheuse situation des marchands de galette
Facheuse situation des marchands de galette is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s 1850 lithograph Fâcheuse situation des marchands de galette portrays a baker standing defiantly before his shop, whose sign reads DE GALETTE.
Honoré Daumier’s 1850 lithograph Fâcheuse situation des marchands de galette portrays a baker standing defiantly before his shop, whose sign reads DE GALETTE. Behind him a crowded, muddy street teems with elongated, caricatured passers‑by. The composition combines a clear narrative scene with Daumier’s characteristic satirical edge, targeting the economic anxieties of mid‑nineteenth‑century France.
Subject & Meaning
The central figure—a baker with arms crossed—embodies the perceived greed of pastry merchants who raised prices for simple cakes during a period of hardship. The surrounding crowd, slipping and stumbling in mud, amplifies the absurdity of the situation, suggesting that the public’s suffering is both real and subject to ridicule.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the work relies on bold, incisive lines that exaggerate facial features and body proportions. Daumier’s use of stark contrast and exaggerated perspective heightens the comic yet critical tone, while the repetitive hatching conveys the filth of the street and the chaotic energy of the scene.
History & Provenance
First produced in 1850, the print circulated among the same satirical journals that featured Daumier’s social commentary. It entered public collections in the early twentieth century, reflecting the enduring interest in his visual critiques of French urban life and economic disparity.
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.
