Who painted C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!...?

C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!... was painted by Honoré Daumier in 1838.

Where can I see C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!...?

C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!... is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!...?

C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!... is associated with Romanticism.

Artwork

C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!...

Honoré Daumier , 1838

C'est tout de même flatteur d'avoir fait tant d'élèves!... is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1838 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

Honoré Daumier’s 1838 lithograph titled *C’est tout de même flatteur d’avoir fait tant d’élèves…!* presents a bustling urban scene rendered in swift, sketch‑like lines. At its center, two men engage in a heated exchange while a dense crowd of onlookers, some clutching numbered placards, fills the street. The composition is deliberately chaotic, emphasizing the immediacy of a public dispute.

Subject & Meaning

The print captures a moment of public agitation, likely a protest or rally, where the two foreground figures act as agitators or speakers. Their exaggerated gestures and the surrounding mass of spectators suggest a critique of authority and the spectacle of popular mobilization, reflecting Daumier’s satirical stance toward the political climate of his time.

Technique & Style

Executed as a lithograph, the work relies on bold, uneven strokes that convey a sense of spontaneity. Daumier’s characteristic caricatural exaggeration appears in the distorted postures of the central figures, while the crowd is rendered with looser, almost gestural marks, underscoring the hurried, newspaper‑like production typical of his social commentary prints.

History & Provenance

Created in 1838, the print emerged during a period of intense republican sentiment in France, when Daumier was actively contributing to satirical journals such as *La Caricature* and *Le Charivari*. It was originally circulated as a single‑sheet illustration, later entering museum collections that focus on 19th‑century French printmaking.

Context

The lithograph was produced amid the July Monarchy’s political turbulence, when public demonstrations and debates over democratic reforms were common. Daumier’s republican leanings informed his depiction of the crowd as both a vehicle for critique and a symbol of popular voice, aligning the work with contemporary visual attacks on the monarchy, aristocracy, and clergy.

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.