Who painted Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ...?

Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ... was painted by Honoré Daumier in 1849.

Where can I see Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ...?

Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ... is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ...?

Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ... is associated with Romanticism.

Artwork

Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ...

Honoré Daumier , 1849

Qu'est la femme aujourd'hui dans la société ... 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 lithograph presents an interior scene populated by three women, each rendered with a unique stance and facial expression. The composition centers on a slightly stooped figure wearing a bonnet, whose gaze is directed toward a second woman poised on tiptoe. A third figure occupies the background, completing the tableau of varied postures within a confined domestic space.

Subject & Meaning

The work engages with contemporary debates about women’s place in society, using the differing attitudes of the figures to suggest contrasting aspirations and constraints. The central woman’s modest, hunched posture juxtaposed with the tiptoeing figure’s upward reach evokes a tension between resignation and the desire for upward mobility that characterized mid‑nineteenth‑century discourse on gender roles.

Technique & Style

Executed in lithography, Daumier employs a restrained palette of line and tone, allowing the silhouettes and gestures of the figures to convey emotion without elaborate detail. The economy of form—simple contours, minimal shading—focuses attention on the relational dynamics among the women, a hallmark of Daumier’s approach to social commentary through print.

History & Provenance

Created during the 1850s, a period when Daumier was prolific in socially charged prints, the lithograph reflects his ongoing interest in everyday life and its underlying power structures. The piece has circulated among private collections before entering public holdings, where it continues to serve as a visual document of gendered expectations in 19th‑century France.

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.