1843
ink
paper
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Dominant colour
Le Ventre Législatif (The Legislative Belly) is a 1843 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This lithograph shows a group of bloated politicians in fancy suits, squished together in a room. Their faces are twisted—one snores, one sneers, another looks half-asleep. Daumier exaggerated their bellies to mock how little they actually did for France. The artist used lithography, a printing method that lets him make sharp, funny lines fast. It spread his political jokes to more people back then. If you like this sharp style, check out Daumier, Honoré.
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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