1866
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Renouvelé des petites Danaides is a 1866 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
A group of small, lively figures desperately pour liquid into a barrel. The barrel is labeled with old treaties and the words "False European Balance." One figure looks out with a cheeky grin. This is a political joke from 1866. Daumier uses the myth of the Danaides—doomed to fill a leaking barrel—to mock European diplomacy after the 1815 peace deals. He made it using lithography, a method where artists draw on stone to make prints. It was common in newspapers and satire of the time. Look up lithography to see how ink and stone helped spread sharp political humor in the 1800s. (Word count: 106)
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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