The Mountebanks. “- Oh Maître Bilboquet, we have had it... these clowns will steal our show! Don't you worry, Gringaillet, they're no competition, they are just comedians!,” from Les Saltimbanques 1839

Honoré Daumier created “The Mountebanks” as a lithograph, a printmaking technique, showcasing his skill with line and form. The composition uses stark contrast, typical of lithography, to highlight the performers. Notice how the artist captures the ephemeral nature of street performance through the dynamic poses and expressions of the figures. Daumier was deeply engaged with the semiotics of urban life, and this work is no exception. The performers and their audience are rendered with exaggerated features. The figures of the mountebanks are physical and expressive, while the crowd is more skeletal, almost ghostlike, and seem to indicate a skepticism or weariness in the face of the performers' antics. Consider the architecture in the background, juxtaposed against the impermanence of street theatre, Daumier suggests the precariousness of the performers' existence. It reminds us that art, like life, is a performance, subject to interpretation.