Artwork
Électeurs, dans mes bras!...
Électeurs, dans mes bras!... is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1869 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Created in 1869, this lithographic print by Honoré Daumier presents a satirical tableau in which a figure balances atop a weary horse while clutching an oversized volume titled Le Dix Neuf Janvier, Mémoire Justificatif. Rendered in stark black‑and‑white with brisk, sketchy lines, the composition conveys a sense of immediacy and absurdity.
Subject & Meaning
The central figure, poised on the animal’s back, appears to champion a political pamphlet that purports to justify a significant event, suggested by the date in the title. Daumier’s choice of a tired horse and exaggerated book underscores the critique of bureaucratic self‑importance and the burdens placed on the populace during a turbulent era of French politics.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the work relies on the artist’s direct drawing on a limestone plate, later transferred to paper through oil‑based inks. Daumier’s characteristic rapid, bold strokes and loose rendering amplify the caricatural tone, while the monochrome palette emphasizes contrast between the figure’s assertiveness and the animal’s fatigue.
Context
The print emerges from Daumier’s long engagement with French republicanism, a period marked by the Revolution of 1830, the upheavals of 1848, and the eventual collapse of the Second Empire in 1870. Working for satirical journals such as La Caricature and Le Charivari, he routinely targeted the monarchy, aristocracy, and clergy, using humor to comment on the nation’s shifting power structures.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Honoré-Victorin Daumier (French: ; 26 February 1808 – 10 or 11 February 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the…
- Voters, into my arms!...
Pas étonnant que ce soit long ...
Bien embarassé
Le lecture du charivari
L'Agent d'affaires
L'arbre de la liberté
Ou peut conduire la lecture du Constitutionnel!
A tous les coeurs bien nés que la patrie est chère!!!
Un inspecteur général russe
Surveillant la Commission de Surveillance
It is not surprising that it is long with so many corrections.
Fallait pas me tutoyer, j'suis dans...