1849
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
M. Berger, dit le superbe ... is a 1849 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
You see a crowd of men in suits, their faces wild and exaggerated. They lean in, shout, or nap. Daumier’s pen turns politicians into grotesque actors. One man’s head is too big. Another’s collar swallows his neck. The artist used lithography, a printing trick where grease and water fight on stone. It lets him make cheap, sharp copies that spread fast. Look at the man in the middle. His eyes bug out. He’s got a speech bubble almost bursting—no words, just noise. Compare this to 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.
See the richer artist page
