Artwork
Eh! Ben ... puisque vous voulez qu' les bouchers ...
Eh! Ben ... puisque vous voulez qu' les bouchers ... is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1857 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s lithograph titled “Eh! Ben … puisque vous voulez qu’ les bouchers …” presents a cramped interior of a butcher’s shop. A woman wearing a headscarf confronts a rough‑looking butcher standing beside a table crowded with hanging cuts of meat. The composition captures a moment of tension between the two figures, rendered in a single‑color print.
Subject & Meaning
The woman appears to be pleading, her gesture suggesting a request or protest, while the butcher’s glare conveys authority and perhaps indifference. By placing a vulnerable individual opposite a figure of commercial power, Daumier highlights everyday struggles and the imbalance of social and economic forces that ordinary people faced in mid‑19th‑century France.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the work relies on bold, thick lines that give the scene a gritty, urgent quality. The monochrome palette emphasizes contrast between light and shadow, while the stark outlines delineate the cluttered shop and the tension in the figures’ expressions, characteristic of Daumier’s incisive graphic style.
Context
Created during a period when Daumier produced numerous prints that satirized the inequities of daily life, this piece reflects his interest in exposing the power dynamics of the marketplace. The butcher’s shop, a familiar urban setting, serves as a microcosm for broader societal issues such as poverty, labor exploitation, and the limited agency of the lower classes.
Legacy
The lithograph stands as a representative example of Daumier’s socially engaged printmaking, illustrating his commitment to giving voice to the disenfranchised. Its direct, unembellished portrayal of a common scene continues to inform studies of 19th‑century French urban life and the role of graphic art in social commentary.
Artist & collection
Artist
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.
Le désespoir des bouchers
Comment ... c'est-t'y dieu possible! ...
Vot' Bourgeois est-y pour liberté de la boucherie?
J'en aurais fait un boucher ...
Ah! Monsieur ...votre bouillon est ...
Allons, v'la encore le mouton qui a haussé
Hein! comme il regarde les cervelas...
Vous savez bien l'éponge que vous disiez...
En v'là un petit pochard!