Artwork
Projet ... Pour désarmer les ennemis de ... Voltaire
Projet ... Pour désarmer les ennemis de ... Voltaire is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1870 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumier’s 1870 lithograph presents a seated elderly statue, crowned with a tall, pointed hat and rendered with pronounced facial distortions. Rendered in bold line work and stark contrast, the image adopts the visual language of 19th‑century caricature to critique the reverence afforded to Enlightenment icons.
Subject & Meaning
The figure, positioned on a throne, alludes to celebrated thinkers such as Voltaire, whose legacy Daumier interrogates through exaggerated physiognomy. By inflating the statue’s features, the work questions the uncritical idolisation of intellectual heroes and highlights the gap between their ideas and their mythic status.
Technique & Style
Executed in lithography, the print relies on strong, decisive lines and high‑contrast shading, hallmarks of Daumier’s satirical oeuvre. The medium allows rapid reproduction of the caricatural style that dominated French visual commentary in the mid‑1800s, emphasizing immediacy and social critique.
Context
Created amid the political turbulence of the Franco‑Prussian War and the fall of the Second Empire, the lithograph reflects a broader French tradition of using humor to confront authority. Daumier’s choice to target Enlightenment reverence aligns with contemporary debates over the role of reason and tradition in a rapidly changing society.
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.
Frappez et on vous ouvrira!
Le défenseur de Calas consolé...
Va te faire achever pour moi
Tirez, ça fait équilibre
Le constructeur du Léviathan se décidant ...
La paix a tout prix
Le Constitutionnel contemplant l'horizon politique
Les Fricoteurs politiques
Belle dame voulez-vous ... accepter mon bras?
Knock and it will open for you!
Histoire d'un règne
Tout est perdu! Fors la caisse