Un Paysage en 1870 (A Landscape in 1870), from Album du Siège (Album of War)
Honoré Victorin Daumier, French, 1808 - 1879
1870
Lithograph on wove paper
Image: 8 7/8 × 7 in. (22.5 × 17.8 cm)
Sheet: 12 5/16 × 9 3/8 in. (31.2 × 23.8 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Purchased through the Julia L. Whittier Fund
PR.956.46.5
Geography
Place Made: France, Europe
Period
19th century
Object Name
Research Area
Not on view
Inscriptions
Initialled, on stone, lower left: h.D.; inscribed, on stone, lower right: 70.; lettered, lower center: UN PAYSAGE EN 1870.; lettered, lower right: 3; inscribed, in graphite, lower left: D3828; inscribed, in graphite, lower center: Daumier 24-24; inscribed, in graphite, lower right: Aln $9.-
Label
A lone cannon is positioned at a break in a wall, pointing out over a sweeping landscape. Stretching to the horizon line, the vista contains only rubble and the suggestion of collapsed structures, while the sky is entirely blank. No humans inhabit the landscape. A renowned satirical printmaker, Daumier uses dark irony to comment on current events in France. In 1870, the French declared war on the Prussian Empire, leading to a brief but violent conflict that resulted in a humiliating defeat for France. Northern France in particular suffered when the Germans invaded, leading to the destruction of cities and the countryside. Published in December, just weeks before the end of the conflict, Daumier’s spare lithograph speaks to the futility and emptiness of at the end of battle
From the 2023 exhibition Recording War: Images of Violence 1500 – 1900, curated by Elizabeth Rice Mattison, Andrew W. Mellon Associate Curator of Academic Programming
Course History
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Fall 2013
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Fall 2013
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Winter 2014
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Spring 2014
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Fall 2014
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Winter 2015
FREN 8, Exploring French Culture and Language, Annabelle Cone, Spring 2019
Exhibition History
France in Transformation: The Caricature of Honore Daumier, Harrington Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, April 25-August 24, 2009.
Manet and His Time, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, ArtH 87, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, March 29, 1994-July 9, 1994.
Recording War: Images of Violence, 1500-1900, Ivan Albright Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, August 23-December 9, 2023.
Provenance
Ferdinand Roten Gallery, Baltimore, Maryland; sold to present collection, 1956.
Catalogue Raisonne
Hazard (1904): 3438; Delteil (1926), Vol. 10: 3828; Daumier Register: 3828
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