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Sight, plate 39 from Types Parisiens

A work made of lithograph in black on white wove paper, with letterpress verso.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of lithograph in black on white wove paper, with letterpress verso.

Date:

August 4, 1839

Artist:

Honoré Victorin Daumier
French, 1808-1879

About this artwork

A favorite of Daumier’s, this print is a play on traditional genre scenes, comically at odds with the sense it portrays. “Sight” is represented by a nighttime stroll alongside the River Seine, with Notre Dame emerging hazily from the darkness. The clearest object is the moon, represented by a curve of unmarked paper, in stark contrast with the heavily shaded image. The moon’s prominence only deepens the print’s irony: a crescent moon is traditionally a symbol that a husband has been cuckolded by his wife, suggesting that the man in the print cannot see what is right before his eyes.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Honoré-Victorin Daumier

Title

Sight, plate 39 from Types Parisiens

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1839

Medium

Lithograph in black on white wove paper, with letterpress verso

Dimensions

Image: 20 × 22.8 cm (7 7/8 × 9 in.); Sheet: 25.1 × 37.4 cm (9 15/16 × 14 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison Collection

Reference Number

1935.194

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/21550/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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