1854
ink
From the collection of National Gallery of Art
Une lecture intéressante et rafraichissante is a 1854 ink by Honoré Daumier, a Impressionism work, held at National Gallery of Art.
A man and a woman sit by a calm lake, reading a large paper together. The man wears a top hat and dark coat, the woman a bonnet and long dress. Trees line the water behind them, and birds fly low in the hazy sky. This image was made using lithography, a printing method where artists draw on stone with greasy crayons. The ink sticks to the drawing and is pressed onto paper. Daumier used this technique to share scenes of daily life with many people. The print shows quiet humor and close observation. You can look up lithography to see how it changed art in the 1800s. (Word count: 98)
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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