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The Connoisseur

ca. 1860–65
Not on view
When, in 1860, Daumier was temporarily let go by his primary employer—the popular magazine that published his lithographs, Le Charivari—he began to produce highly finished watercolors such as this one to appeal to a burgeoning market of bourgeois collectors. Throughout his career, he often treated the theme of art spectators and enthusiasts. Here, he portrayed an exemplary connoisseur reclining in an armchair and contemplating his surrounding collection. The object of his gaze is a tabletop replica of the Venus de Milo, the monumental Greek marble that came to symbolize the beauty of Antique art upon its installation in the Musée du Louvre in 1821. This watercolor was included in Daumier’s only one-man exhibition during his lifetime, held at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in 1878.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Connoisseur
  • Artist: Honoré Daumier (French, Marseilles 1808–1879 Valmondois)
  • Date: ca. 1860–65
  • Medium: Pen and ink, wash, watercolor, lithographic crayon, and gouache over black chalk on wove paper
  • Dimensions: 17 1/4 x 14 in. (43.8 x 35.5cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929
  • Object Number: 29.100.200
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

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The New Oedipus before the New Sphinx (Le nouvel Œdipe devant le nouveau Sphinx), from Actualités
Honoré Daumier
1851
Standing Figure of a Man with a Staff, Honoré Daumier French, Black chalk and graphite
Standing Figure of a Man with a Staff
Honoré Daumier
1825–79
Album Chaos Caricature de tout le monde
Honoré Daumier
Aubert et Cie
[1840]
La Mort de Sapho, from Histoire Ancienne, published in Le Charivari, January 4, 1843
Honoré Daumier
January 4, 1843
Rifolard ouvre le bal. . .
Honoré Daumier
November 21, 1848

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