Who painted Au Café d'Aguesseau?

Au Café d'Aguesseau was painted by Honoré Daumier in 1846.

Where can I see Au Café d'Aguesseau?

Au Café d'Aguesseau is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is Au Café d'Aguesseau?

Au Café d'Aguesseau is associated with Romanticism.

Artwork

Au Café d'Aguesseau

Honoré Daumier , 1846

Au Café d'Aguesseau is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1846 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

Created in 1846, this lithograph by Honoré Daumier captures a brief scene inside a modest Parisian café. Three men are gathered around a small, white‑cloth‑covered table, surrounded by dim lighting and heavy curtains. The composition is rendered in a sketch‑like manner, emphasizing exaggerated gestures and facial expressions that suggest a humorous, satirical tone.

Subject & Meaning

The work portrays a trio of patrons, one formally dressed and gazing pensively, while the other two lean over the table, one holding a bottle and glass. The caption alludes to a joke involving lawyers and food, indicating Daumier’s intent to mock professional pretensions and the social habits of the bourgeois class.

Technique & Style

Executed as a lithographic print, the image relies on bold, fluid lines and stark contrasts to convey immediacy. Daumier’s characteristic exaggeration of posture and expression creates a caricatural effect, while the limited tonal range and simplified background focus attention on the figures and their interaction.

History & Provenance

Part of Daumier’s extensive series of satirical prints produced for periodicals such as *La Caricature* and *Le Charivari*, the lithograph reflects his engagement with political and social commentary during the July Monarchy and the early Second Republic. It remains documented within collections that specialize in 19th‑century French graphic art.

Context

In the mid‑1840s, French society was marked by tensions between emerging republican ideals and established aristocratic and clerical authority. Daumier’s work frequently targeted these power structures, using everyday settings like cafés to expose the pretensions and hypocrisies of the era’s professional and elite classes.

Artist & collection

Artist

Honoré Daumier

Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870.