1854
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Les deux grands ducs ... is a 1854 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
Two big ducks sit on a rock. Their calm stares ignore the war below. Daumier uses sharp lines to show cannon blasts and smoke. This isn’t a happy scene. The ducks remind us how out of place quiet things feel during chaos. Artists often use animals this way to point out human mistakes. Compare these stiff ducks to Daumier, Honoré’s other sharp political prints.
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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