Daumier
Visions of Paris (1808-1879)
26 October 2013 - 26 January 2014
The Sackler Wing, Burlington House
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
This exhibition has closed.
Friends of the RA go free
Exploring the legacy of Honoré Daumier: freethinker, staunch Republican, and chronicler of everyday life in turbulent 19th century Paris.
Honoré Daumier lived during a pivotal time in France’s history. 'Visions of Paris' sets out to explore his legacy through 130 works, many of which have never been seen in the UK before, with a concentration on paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures.
Daumier's work has been admired by artists both of his time such as Degas and Delacroix as well as those who followed; from Picasso and Francis Bacon to Paula Rego and Quentin Blake. Daumier made his living as a caricaturist in newspapers, observing and ridiculing the conceits of bourgeois society, reserving special criticism for dishonest politicians and lawyers; even earning himself a spell in jail for his depiction of King Louis Philippe as Gargantua.
Broadly chronological, this exhibition is the first to go beyond Daumier’s lithographs in the UK since 1961. Spanning the decades from 1830 to 1879 it will look at the range of his output, from disturbing images of fugitives from the cholera epidemics and deeply felt images of the laundresses and street entertainers living in his neighbourhood to his take on the role of spectators and collectors in judging art. In its variety and breadth, this exhibition will give visitors visions of Paris to live long in the memory.
Saturday – Thursday 10am – 6pm
Friday 10am – 10pm
This exhibition has closed.
Friends of the RA go free
To me art’s subject is the human clay / And landscape but a background to a torso. / All Cezanne’s apples I would give away / For one small Goya or a Daumier
W.H.Auden, 'Letter to Lord Byron', 1937
Gallery
Gargantua, La Caricature, 1831
Advice to a Young Artist (Conseils à un jeune artiste), c. 1865-68
The Sideshow (Parade de Saltimbanques), c. 1865-66
A Man Reading in a Garden, also called Reader (Un homme lecture dans un jardin, ou Le Liseur) (recto), c. 1866-1868
The Defence (Le Défenseur), c. 1865
Pen and ink and watercolour
Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (Don Quichotte et Sancho Panza), c. 1870
The Samuel Courtauld Trust, The Courtauld Gallery, London
The Print Collector (Les Amateur d'estampes), c. 1857-63
The Art Institute of Chicago, Gift of the Estate of Marshall Field
The Third-class Railway Carriage (Un wagon de troisième classe), 1862-64
Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (29.100.129).
The Laundress (La Sortie du bateau à lessive), 1861-63