The Connoisseur
Honoré Daumier French
Not on view
Part of Daumier’s working process in creating his watercolor, "The Connoisseur" (29.100.200), this counterproof was likely made from a lost drawing. It presents the mirror image of many elements of the watercolor: the collector in profile reclining in an armchair with a stuffed portfolio propped up by its side; the bust that looks down from the pedestal behind him and the round table cluttered with objects that he faces. Missing from the table is the statuette of the Venus de Milo, the focal point of the connoisseur’s gaze in the finished drawing, which is placed behind his proper left shoulder in this work. Daumier’s counterproofs are most often worked over in other media. Here, only the slightest correction has been made to the nose, leaving the transferred drawing visible for close analysis.
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