“Eleven degrees centigrade! Look at how it makes you look! And this is called the year of grace!,” plate 1 from Vulgarités
Medium
Lithograph in black on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 22.1 × 18.8 cm (8 3/4 × 7 7/16 in.); Sheet: 32.8 × 24.7 cm (12 15/16 × 9 3/4 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
76350
Art Historical Context
In the bustling satirical world of 19th-century Paris, Honoré Daumier captures the absurdities of bourgeois life with sharp wit in *“Eleven degrees centade! Look at how it makes you look! And is called the year of!,”* plate 1 from his *Vulgarités* series (1841). Daumier, a master lithographer and fierce social critic during France's July Monarchy,ered the pretensions of the emerging middle class. Here, the exclamatory title mocks the chill of an 11°C day—frigid by Parisian standards—and the unflattering bulk of winter garb, dripping with irony as it dubs the era a "year of grace." Printed in ...
About the Artist
Honoré-Victorin Daumier · 1808–1879
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...