Provenance
M. Ch. Salomon, by 1878
Mme. Albert Esnault-Pelterie, Paris, France, by 1910-ca 1938
Dr Fritz Nathan, Zollikon, Zurich, Switzerland, by 1955
Thence by descent to the present owner
At one time handled by the late dealer Sam Salz, New York, New York.
Exhibited
Paris, Durand Ruel, Exposition des peintures et dessins de
H. Daumier, 1878, no. 90, p.58
Paris,
Galerie Georges Petit, Cent Chefs-d’œuvre de l’École Française, Vingt
Peintres du 19e Siècle, 2- 31. Mai, 1910, no. 52, p. 15
Paris, Orangerie, Daumier, peintures, aquarelles, dessins, 1934,
no. 8, p. 47
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Museum of Art, Daumier 1808-1879, 1937, no.
4., p. 21
Winterthur, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Europäische Meister, June -
July 1955, no. 60, p.23
Paris, Petit Palais, De Géricault à Matisse: Chefs d'œuvre français des
collections suisses, March-May 1959, no. 37, ill., pl. 14, np.
London, Tate Gallery, Daumier: paintings and drawings. An exhibition
organised by the Arts Council of Great Britain, June-July 1961, no. 30, p.
32, illustrated, pl. 7(c)
Schaffhausen, Museum zu Allerheiligen, Die Welt des Impressionismus,
29 June-29 September 1963, no. 29, p. 20.
Tübingen, Kunsthalle Tübingen, Die Kunst des Handelns: Meisterwerke des
14. bis 20, Jahrhunderts bei Fritz und Pether Nathan, 24 September 2005-8 January
2006, no. 131, pp. 183, 307.
Literature
A. Alexandre, Honoré
Daumier, l'homme et l’oeuvre, Paris, 1888, p. 375.
E. Klossowski, Honoré Daumier, incl. supplement, Munich, 1923,
no. 272, p. 111.
J. Fontainas, La Peinture
de Daumier. Ars graphica; études et documents, Paris, 1923, pl. 18,
illustrated.
E. Fuchs, Der Maler Daumier, incl. supplement, Munich, 1930, no.
35b, illustrated.
J. Lassaigne, Daumier, New York and Paris, 1938, p. 42, illustrated.
J. Lassaigne, Formes et Couleurs, vol. III/IV, 1945, p. 381.
P. Courthion, Daumier raconté par lui-même et par ses amis, Vésenaz, P. Cailler, 1945, p. 268, illustrated.
C. Scweicher, Daumier, Paris, Somogy, Ars Mundi, 1953, pl. 8.
G. Besson, Honoré Daumier, Paris, Cercle d'Art, 1959, pl. XLV, illustrated.
G. Besson, Daumier Paintings and Drawings, London, 1961, no. 30, p. 32, pl. 7c, illustrated.
R. Rey, Daumier, Library of Great Painters, New York, 1965, pp. 102-103, illustrated.
K. E. Maison, Honoré Daumier: A Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors, and Drawings, 2 vols., Paris, 1967, I-155, pl. 78.
G. Mandel, Tout l'œuvre peint de Daumier, Paris, 1972, no. 203.
P. Cabanne, Honoré Daumier, Paris, 1999, p. 144, illustrated.
Catalogue note
Honoré Daumier has always been a challenging artist to categorize in 19th century French painting. His early reputation centered on his cartoons as a satirical newspaper caricaturist, first for the weekly journal La Caricature and later as a visual social commentor for Le Charivari, where his subjects were treated in much in the same spirit as Charles Dickens. His work was admired by Eugène Delacroix and Charles Baudelaire, and he was friends with Jean Baptiste Camile Corot, Charles François Daubigny and Théodore Rousseau.
Daumier turned to painting between 1855-1870. At this time, his works in oil took on a different tone from his earlier satirical cartoons. One may speculate that he was influenced by contemporary artists, especially Gustave Courbet and Jean François Millet, because Daumier’s subjects now become primarily drawn from realistic scenes of everyday life -railway travelers, amateur collectors looking at prints, street entertainers, lawyers and in the case of our painting, two beer drinkers seated at a table; one lighting his pipe while the other focuses on reading his newspaper (perhaps here Daumier was secretly giving a nod to his earlier profession).
Our painting originally belonged to Madame Albert Esnault-Pelterie, who in the earlier twentieth-century, assembled a legendary, highly focused collection of paintings and drawings by Daumier, Delacroix, Corot, Millet, and Courbet.