Magere en gezette man in het zwembad 1840

Honoré Daumier crafted this lithograph, now held in the Rijksmuseum, capturing a moment at the swimming pool with stark visual contrasts. Here, the juxtaposition of the lean and corpulent figures speaks volumes. The gaunt man, draped in cloth, embodies a sense of restraint. His figure evokes the ascetic ideals found in religious art, and contrasts with the ample figure, who nonchalantly puffs a cigarette, seemingly indifferent to social expectations. This contrast echoes through art history. Think of the depictions of the seven deadly sins. It reappears in countless forms—the dichotomy between the spiritual and the material, discipline and indulgence, the Apollonian and the Dionysian. Daumier's art uses the human form not just to depict, but to embody these timeless tensions.