Honoré Victorin Daumier
French, 1808 - 1879L’orchestra pendant qu’on joue une tragedie (The Orchestra During the Performance of a Tragedy), 1852
Not on view
Lithograph on newspaper
Dimensions14 9/16 × 10 3/8 in. (37 × 26.4 cm)
Image: 10 1/4 × 8 9/16 in. (26 × 21.7 cm)
Gift of Mr. Jack B. Pierson, 1989.62
Honoré Daumier, born in Marseilles, France, is considered to be the preeminent social commentator of the 19th century. Active as a painter, sculptor and printmaker, Daumier was acclaimed for his incisive and sometimes scandalous political and social satires of French society. Daumier's graphic art accounts for a considerable portion of his artistic production, numbering in excess of 5,000 lithographs. So daring was his work that his scathing caricature of the ruler Louis-Philippe, entitled Gargantua (1831), incurred the wrath of the monarch, resulting in his arrest and brief imprisonment.
Although Daumier was not a musician, he made numerous prints based on musical themes throughout his career, parodying celebrated musical figures from the 19th century, including Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Gioachino Rossini and Niccolo Paganini. The majority of his musically themed prints were caricatures of French musicians, both amateur and professional. In L' Orchestra Pendant qu'on Joue une Tragedie, taken from the series entitled Croquis Musicaux (Musical Sketches) Daumier humorously depicts orchestral musicians lulled to sleep, indifferent to the tragic proceedings taking place onstage.
