Death of Sappho 1843

Curator: Oh, this Daumier! "Death of Sappho." It has such a raw, heart-wrenching quality, don't you think? Editor: It's certainly dramatic. The lithographic crayon work gives it a sense of immediacy—almost like witnessing a news event in real-time. You can almost smell the ink. Curator: Exactly! It's the way he captures Sappho’s final, defiant leap—a tragic beauty fueled by, well, societal constraints, perhaps unrequited affections. Editor: Or perhaps the industrial forces devaluing poetry. Consider the paper itself, pulled directly from the printing press, a medium of mass production. How does this frame the artist's romantic vision of Sappho? Curator: Hmmm, interesting point. There’s such a vulnerability, this feels more like a reflection on artistic freedom versus the limitations of the world. Editor: Maybe. And yet, the lithograph itself—the stone, the grease, the press—demands its own kind of freedom, doesn't it? Curator: Food for thought! It is a fascinating contrast, no? I wonder what Daumier was hoping we'd see in her sacrifice? Editor: Maybe he hoped we'd see the price of creation.