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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

More Artwork
The Third-Class Carriage, Honoré Daumier French, Oil on canvas
The Third-Class Carriage
Honoré Daumier
1864
Ceramic Horn, Glazed pottery, French
Ceramic Horn
French
late 18th or early 19th century
A Man Reading in a Garden (recto); Preliminary sketch for a Man Reading in a Garden (verso), Honoré Daumier French, Watercolor over black chalk, pen and black ink, brush and gray wash, and lithographic crayon (recto); pen and brown ink, brush and black gray wash, and lithographic crayon (verso)
A Man Reading in a Garden (recto); Preliminary sketch for a Man Reading in a Garden (verso)
Honoré Daumier
ca. 1865
The Drinkers, Honoré Daumier French, Oil on wood
The Drinkers
Honoré Daumier
by 1861
Osage Warrior, Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin French, Watercolor and graphite on off-white wove paper, American
Osage Warrior
Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin
1805–7

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