Toast porté a l'émancipation des femmes ...

The work foregrounds the emerging discourse on women’s rights in mid‑nineteenth‑century France. By presenting the women in confident, upward‑raised poses, Daumier underscores a sense of agency and collective empowerment, aligning the act of toasting with the broader aspiration for social and legal emancipation.

Executed as a lithograph, the image relies on bold, unmodulated lines and a flat tonal field, avoiding the chiaroscuro typical of oil painting. The clear contours and uniform shading emphasize the figures’ silhouettes and the decorative details of their period dresses and coiffures.

Created in 1848, a year marked by revolutionary upheaval across Europe, the print reflects contemporary political currents. It entered the public domain through Daumier’s prolific printmaking practice, circulating among reformist circles and later being acquired by several French municipal collections.

The women’s attire—elegant gowns and elaborate hairstyles—mirrors fashionable Parisian dress of the 1840s, situating the scene within the urban middle class. Their unified gesture can be read against the backdrop of early feminist petitions and the 1848 Declaration of the Rights of Women, which sought legal recognition for women’s civic participation.