Damned flag! Impossible to get rid of the color, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, March 2, 1872
March 2, 1872
Medium
Lithograph on newsprint; second state of two (Delteil)
Dimensions
Image: 9 1/8 in. × 8 in. (23.2 × 20.3 cm) Sheet: 11 1/4 × 10 7/8 in. (28.5 × 27.6 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Edwin De T. Bechtel, 1957
Accession Number
57.650.235
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the turbulent wake of France's defeat in the Franco-Prussian and the birth of the Third Republic,é Daumier unleashed his sharp satirical wit in this lithograph, *Damned flag! Impossible get rid of the color published in the daily satirical newspaper *Le Charari* on March 2, 1872. Daumier, a masteraturist and pioneer of realist lithography, targets Henri, Comte de Chambord—the Legitimist pretender to the throne—who insisted on restoring the white Bourbon flag over the republican tricolor. The image humorously depicts working men futilely scrubbing at a stubbornly colorful flag, embodying the...
About the Artist
Honoré Daumier|Henri comte de Chambord · 1810–1879
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...