Artwork
La femme du représentant
La femme du représentant is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1849 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s 1849 lithograph La femme du représentant presents a quiet interior scene in which a man is seen adjusting his collar while a woman, veiled with a headscarf, gazes toward a wardrobe or mirror. The composition captures a fleeting moment of everyday life, rendered with the crisp lines and tonal contrasts characteristic of Daumier’s printmaking.
Subject & Meaning
The work juxtaposes the male figure’s preoccupation with appearance against the woman’s contemplative stare, suggesting subtle commentary on the domestic roles and expectations of mid‑nineteenth‑century France. By highlighting the tension between public presentation and private reflection, Daumier hints at underlying social pressures and the unspoken negotiations that shape gendered interactions within the household.
Technique & Style
Executed as a lithograph, the image relies on fine incised lines and varying densities of ink to model form and space. Daumier’s economical brush‑like strokes convey texture—such as the fabric of the headscarf and the sheen of the man’s collar—while the stark contrast between light and shadow reinforces the intimate, almost theatrical atmosphere of the scene.
Context
Created during a period of political unrest in France, the lithograph reflects Daumier’s broader interest in critiquing authority and social hierarchy. Though the figures appear ordinary, their tense postures and the closed interior allude to the anxieties and power dynamics that pervaded French society, aligning the work with Daumier’s reputation for satirizing the powerful.
History & Provenance
First issued in 1849, the print circulated among the growing market for affordable art reproductions, allowing a wide audience to engage with Daumier’s observations. Subsequent collections have retained the work as an example of his early print output, illustrating his transition from caricature toward more nuanced 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.
Un jour de représentation a benéfice
Les maris ne sont pas ce qu'un vain peuple pense!
A portée de lorgnon
Dis donc amour! Crois-tu que ce sera un garçon. -Tu sais bien Clothilde que je te l'ai promis . . . Et j'ai un tact . . . Qui ne me trompe jamais!
Il est devenu pro-pri-é-taire!
Ayant la prétention de faire partie du beau monde
Le Jour ou l'on dine chez Monsieur le Directeur...