“ Like a Symbol of Eternity each of these Figures stands ”
200 Years Honoré Daumier
Culminating here in his Grand , in his Timeless Late Accord
his Grandiose Work of Reconciliation
created at the Climax of the War of 1870/71
Daumier, Honoré (Marseille 1808 – Valmondois 1879). To the War of 1870-71. Set of 7 lithographs. (1870-71.) Monogrammed, inscribed. 22.5-24.5 x 18-19.8 cm.
Careful wide-margined impressions on better paper without the text on the back and the “Actualité” series title. – Top margin untrimmed. – Two leaves with several small though not to be overvalued foxing spots. The weak light shadow giving the impression of a tone print.
The great late accord praised by literature ,
by which Daumier was ahead of his time by decades, even by a century. A work of reconciliation, created at the climax of mutual hate – in view of the siege of Paris!
“ while Daumier just now … created his most important leaves ”
(Rümann) – as it has not been repeated humanly more moving, artistically more overwhelming down to our days. Seven lithographs – or one picture in seven stations :
Ceci a tué cela. The dead agreed with this war. Delteil, (Le peintre-graveur illustré), Honoré Daumier, 3845, III (of 4) with ills. of the 4th state; Rümann, D. illustr. Buch d. 19. Jhdts., full-page ills. 109. – Before the black spot within the “oui” above of the ballot box;
Un Paysage en 1870. Goya’s canon in a wall’s gap. Delteil 3828, III (of 4) with ills. of an earlier state;
L’Empire c’est la Paix. Ruins and dead. Delteil 3814, III (of 3) with ills. of an earlier state;
Square Napoléon. Place of the dead. Delteil 3824, III (of 3) with ills. of this state;
Pauvre France! … Le Tronc est foudroyé, mais les racines tiennent bon! Just one side sprout of the broken trunk puts forth like a scourge in the storm. Delteil 3843, III (of 3) with ills. of this state;
L’Unité Allemande. The roller of Mars levels out the dead. Delteil 3831, III (of 3) with ills. of this state;
1871 – Épouvantée de l’Héritage. Lamenting woman in front of the dead of the war. Delteil 3838, III (of 3) with ills. of this state.
Worked for the “Charivari” in that technique, “as whose greatest master he has to be considered in the 19th century” (Jahn, 1957). In the stroke that became soft and broad, missing the really deep blackness of the early years at whose place now the equal light of the plain-air spreads over the presentation. And
in the great late accord of the last years
omitting all material and
“ accusing the wrong of war in symbolic figures only …
“ More moving no master of the Middle Ages has seen the mourning Mother of God below the cross than Daumier the upright figure of the lamenting woman he called ‘Épouvantée de l’Héritage’
“ … and in the broad, quite open and clear stroke mighty figures tower like monuments … Like a symbol of eternity each of these figures stands ”
(Glaser, Graphik der Neuzeit).
In which Daumier once again presents himself as sculptor though having nothing in common with the plastic style of the early years.
“ But the ideal that once the young man had in mind realized (itself) in an unexpected freedom ” (Glaser).
Which he did not use for overdrawing disfigurement or distortion:
“ One likes to call him the great or even the greatest caricaturist. But if caricature is intentional distortion of reality then Daumier’s creations are not caricature … Because Daumier not disfigures, not distorts, what he sees. He sees, grasps reality and his ingenious-unfailing crayon captures, for his own time and for the coming times, how the people and the conditions had been and are in reality … And so as he depicts them, so they are. So they are still today, even if they wore different skirts and hats. We recognize them today … ”
(Richard R. Pokorny in Dt. Rundschau vol. 84, 2, 163 ff.).
And only this conception of his time as his environment we owe
Daumier , the great reconciliator.
Offer no. 14,390 / EUR 2199. / export price EUR 2089. (c. US$ 2901.) + shipping
„ Sie haben wieder einmal in unverkennbarer Weise Ihr Unternehmen und Ihre Philosophie dargeboten. Ich wünsche Ihnen – beiden – auch in diesem Jahr viel Erfolg und Gefolgschaft von Ihren alten und hoffentlich auch neuen Kunden und natürlich auch persönliches Wohlergehen … “
(Herr D. L., 4. Januar 2010)