1839
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
On flaire la marchandise... avant de la mécaniser!... is a 1839 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Romanticism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
This sketch shows two people in a tight, messy room. One is a butcher with bloody hands, leaning over a counter piled with meat. The other is a woman with a basket, looking annoyed. The butcher’s face is squished and exaggerated, like he’s being mocked. The room is dark, with rough walls and a window letting in dim light. The artist made the butcher’s nose huge and his eyes small, making him look greedy. The woman’s face is simpler but just as expressive—her mouth is tight, like she’s judging him. The whole scene feels like a joke about how people act when selling things. Want to see how artists used simple lines to make strong statements? Try lithography.
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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