De l'utilité d'une famille pour une cantatrice, from Croquis Parisiens, published in Le Charivari, January 28, 1857
January 28, 1857
Medium
Lithograph; second state of two (Delteil)
Dimensions
Sheet: 10 7/16 × 14 1/8 in. (26.5 × 35.8 cm) Image: 7 3/8 × 9 15/16 in. (18.8 × 25.2 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1962
Accession Number
62.650.447
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the bustling world of mid-19th-century Paris, Honoré Daumier, a master of satirical lithography, captured the city's theatrical underbelly in *De l'utilité d famille pour une cantatrice ("On the Usefulness of a Family for Singer"), published January 28, 1857, in the irreverent newspaper *Le Charivari*. Part of the *Croquis Parisiens*, this print features collaborators Aaron Martinet and Destouches alongside Daumier, reflecting the collaborative spirit of France's vibrant print culture during the Second Empire. Daumier, renowned for over 4,000 biting lithographs skewering bourgeois society, ...