Artwork
Étrennes pour 1867
Étrennes pour 1867 is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1866 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
The title *Étrennes pour 1867* hints this is a joke about a train accident in 1867—Daumier used humor to criticize unsafe railways.
This sketch shows a lumpy, exaggerated figure in a fancy coat and hat, holding a spear and standing on a train track. Behind him, a train is crashing into a hill labeled "67." The scene is messy, with rough lines and no smooth shading.
The title *Étrennes pour 1867* hints this is a joke about a train accident in 1867—Daumier used humor to criticize unsafe railways.
Next, look up lithography to see how artists like Daumier made sharp, quick sketches like this.
Overview
Étrennes pour 1867 is a lithographic print executed by Honoré Daumier in 1866. The image presents a grotesquely proportioned figure in an ornate coat and hat, brandishing a spear while perched on railway tracks. A locomotive is shown colliding with a hill marked “67,” suggesting a disastrous train crash. The composition is rendered with loose, sketch‑like lines and lacks refined shading, emphasizing its satirical intent.
Subject & Meaning
The work caricatures the reckless expansion of railway travel in mid‑nineteenth‑century France, lampooning both the technological optimism and the hazards it produced. By exaggerating the rider’s physique and placing him in a precarious position, Daumier mocks the hubris of those who championed rapid industrial progress without regard for safety, turning a contemporary accident into a broader critique of societal negligence.
Technique & Style
Created through lithography, the print exploits the medium’s capacity for swift, direct drawing on stone. Daumier’s hand‑drawn lines remain bold and uneven, preserving the immediacy of a sketch. The absence of tonal gradations and the reliance on stark contour work highlight the artist’s preference for rapid, expressive execution, a hallmark of his satirical prints for popular journals.
History & Provenance
Although completed in 1866, the piece was titled to reference a railway disaster that occurred in 1867, aligning it with Daumier’s habit of responding promptly to current events. The print circulated among the same audiences that followed his contributions to periodicals such as La Caricature and Le Charivari, reinforcing his reputation as a commentator on contemporary French life.
Context
Daumée’s lithograph belongs to a larger body of work that scrutinized the political and social upheavals of the Second French Empire and the early Third Republic. By targeting the railway—a symbol of modernity and state ambition—he linked technological advancement to the broader inequities and anxieties that characterized France’s rapid transformation during the 1860s.
Artist & collection
Artist
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.
