Artwork
Un Monsieur tenant à prouver qu'il peut...
Un Monsieur tenant à prouver qu'il peut... is an ink print by the Impressionist artist Honoré Daumier. It dates from 1852 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art. Honoré Daumée’s lithograph presents a lively interior where a man at a piano sings with exaggerated fervor.
About this work
Overview
Honoré Daumée’s lithograph presents a lively interior where a man at a piano sings with exaggerated fervor. The performer’s mouth is wide open, his hat teetering as if about to be blown away, while two onlookers clutch their chests, one appearing to stare with eyes rolled back. The scene captures a moment of theatrical intensity within a domestic setting.
Subject & Meaning
The image satirizes the melodramatic culture of mid‑nineteenth‑century Paris, turning a simple musical gathering into a comic spectacle of overblown emotion. By emphasizing the performer’s exaggerated gestures and the audience’s startled reactions, Daumée comments on the tendency of Parisians to indulge in flamboyant displays of feeling.
Technique & Style
Executed in lithography, the work relies on bold, fluid lines and stark contrasts to heighten the caricatured effect. Daumée’s characteristic exaggeration of facial features and posture amplifies the humor, while the limited tonal range of the print underscores the immediacy of the scene.
Context
Created during Daumée’s prolific period of social satire, the lithograph aligns with his broader series of prints that critique everyday Parisian life. It reflects the artist’s interest in the public’s fascination with performance and the theatricality that pervaded even private gatherings in the 1850s.
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.
