1842
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Le Supplice de Tantale is a 1842 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows a man reaching for fruit on a tree—grapes and pears—while a bird flies away with a piece of bread. He’s half-submerged in water, straining upward. On the ground, a plate holds a cake with a duck on top, untouched. The scene looks messy, with rough lines and dark shading. The man’s struggle hints at a story about greed and punishment. The title *Le Supplice de Tantale* (Tantalus’ Torment) explains it’s based on a myth where a man is forever denied what he craves. Next, check out lithography to see how this sketch 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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