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A Present for an Artist. The Chinese adore music, but they are also passionately fond of musicians. Their infatuation of this attitude is carried to extremes which are not easily understood in our civilized regions. Thus it is quite normal to see Chinese harnessed like horses to a cab and drive their idol around town. An when a pianist has improvised variations more or less brilliant of the "air of moonlight", "Ah!... you will say... Mama" or "King Dagobert", they find nothing better to bestow on him than a sword of honour which is accepted with a coolness equally laughable, plate 23 from Voyage En Chine

A Present for an Artist. The Chinese adore music, but they are also passionately fond of musicians. Their infatuation of this attitude is carried to extremes which are not easily understood in our civilized regions. Thus it is quite normal to see Chinese harnessed like horses to a cab and drive their idol around town. An when a pianist has improvised variations more or less brilliant of the "air of moonlight", "Ah!... you will say... Mama" or "King Dagobert", they find nothing better to bestow on him than a sword of honour which is accepted with a coolness equally laughable, plate 23 from Voyage En Chine by Honoré-Victorin Daumier

Medium

Lithograph in black on white wove paper

Dimensions

Image: 21.5 × 18.7 cm (8 1/2 × 7 3/8 in.); Sheet: 35.6 × 27.2 cm (14 1/16 × 10 3/4 in.)

Classification

lithograph

Department

Prints and Drawings

Museum

Art Institute of Chicago

Accession Number

79921

About the Artist

Honoré-Victorin Daumier · 18081879

Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808-1879) was a prolific French printmaker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor whose works offered incisive commentary on the social and political life of 19th-century France. Known as the 'Michelangelo of Caricature,' Daumier produced over 4,000 lithographs, 500 paintings, 1,000 drawings, and 100 sculptures during his lifetime. His biting political satire led to his imp...

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