"- How are you feeling today, Mr. Chapolard? - Madame Pochet, a concierge who knows how to behave, should address her landlord only in the third person. - How can I talk to you in the third person, since you are the first person I am seeing this morning," plate 11 from Croquis Parisiens
Medium
Lithograph in black on white wove paper
Dimensions
Image: 25.9 × 21.5 cm (10 1/4 × 8 1/2 in.); Sheet: 36 × 27.5 cm (14 3/16 × 10 7/8 in.)
Classification
lithograph
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
7774
Art Historical Context
Honoré Daumier, a master of 19th-century French caricature, captures the witty social tensions of Parisian life in this 1852 lithograph, 11 from his series *Croquis Parisi* (Parisian Sketches). The image depicts a humorous exchange between Madame Pochet, a nosy concierge, and hery landlord, Mr. Chapolard. She cheekily greets him directly, only to be scolded for breaching etiquette by not using the formal third person—prompting her retort that he's the first person she's seen that morning. Daumier's sharp satire highlights the rigid class hierarchies and petty bourgeois conventions of Second Em...
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...