Honoré Daumier

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Honoré Daumier

1808-1879

Reading

ca. 1860

Pen and black ink and wash with black fabricated chalk over charcoal on card stock.

9 5/8 x 12 inches (244 x 304 mm)

Thaw Collection.

2017.51

Notes:

In the 1850s and 1860s, as part of his ongoing observation of modern life in Paris, Daumier produced a series of drawings and paintings featuring groups of men talking, reading, or playing games in intimate domestic spaces. Here, an elderly man hunches forward, his body taut with the effort to hear, while his companion reads aloud. Sheets like this one reveal the empathetic and humane side of an artist known for his satirical and political work. -- Exhibition Label, from "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection"

Inscription:

Signed in pen and black ink, and wash, on paper.

Provenance:

Mme Hecht, Paris; Pontremoli; Trenel; Wildenstein and Co., New York; Norton Simon, Los Angeles; Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw, New York.

Associated names:

Hecht, Mme., former owner.
Pontremoli, former owner.
Trenel, former owner.
Simon, Norton, 1907-1993, former owner.
Thaw, Eugene Victor, former owner.
Thaw, Clare, former owner.

Bibliography:

The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY, "Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection", 2017. Exh. cat., no. 72, repr.
Stampfle, Felice, and Cara D. Denison. Drawings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Eugene V. Thaw. New York : Pierpont Morgan Library, 1975, no. 86.

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Exhibitions:

Drawn to Greatness: Master Drawings from the Thaw Collection

Department:

Drawings and Prints