Rue Transnonain, Le 15 Avril 1834

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Rue Transnonain, Le 15 Avril 1834

Artist Honoré Daumier (French, 1808-1879)

Date1834

Dimensionsimage: 11 1/4 x 17 3/8 in. (28.6 x 44.1 cm)

Mediumlithograph

ClassificationPrints

Credit LineGift of Albert Roullier Art Galleries, Chicago

Object number

1923.3103

Not on View

Label TextIn this powerful masterpiece of political art Daumier depicted the aftermath of government retaliation for a working-class riot protesting harsh working conditions. In an extension of the riot, a sniper killed a police officer. The police stormed the sniper’s building and killed a number of innocent residents, including a woman and child. Daumier creates a moving, galvanizing image showing a family—including an elderly man and an infant—gunned down in their night clothes. The print attracted the anger of the regime of King Louis-Philippe and was confiscated by the government, but not before it was published in two papers and widely circulated. The biting political satire of Daumier led to imprisonment as well as celebrity for this revered revolutionary. Daumier used his prints to make social commentary about the state of Paris during the Revolution of 1830, a time when freedom of the press was being challenged. Many of his works were criticisms of the French king and his advisors. After spending time in jail for his political agenda, Daumier was released, returning to his production of satirical prints about Parisian life. Lithography was Daumier’s preferred method of making prints. The medium was new at the time, discovered in 1798, and involves a method of making an image on a piece of flat Bavarian limestone, setting that image into the stone through the application of acid, and then transferring the image to paper. This print bears witness to the aftermath of a massacre, which occurred during a popular uprising early in the reign of French king Louis-Philippe I. The inhabitants of the apartment house depicted here, which was located near a barricade, were killed indiscriminately by the National Guard after a single shot was fired from the house. The realistically gruesome scene is unusual for Daumier, who was primarily known for his caricatures and satirical work. This lithograph is a clear condemnation of the violent military action without the sense of levity that often accompanied Daumier’s expression of political opinion. It is recognized as one of the artist’s finest works.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, The Modern Print, Febr. - Mar. 1959. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Museum of Art; Reflections of an era of change: the art of France, 1774-1830; 1975; no. 41. TMA The Painter Was a Printmaker: June 23 - Sept. 9, 1984. Toledo Museum of Art, Prints and Authors from the Time of Manet, September 13, 2012-January 13, 2013. Toledo Museum of Art, Looks Good on Paper: Masterworks and Favorites, Oct. 10, 2014-Jan. 11, 2015.