"Oh my friend! What a handsome Turk!" 1859

Curator: This is "Oh my friend! What a handsome Turk!" by Honoré Daumier, part of the collection at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It strikes me as bitterly humorous. The figures are drawn with such exaggerated features, almost cartoonish. Curator: Daumier was a master of social commentary. This lithograph likely critiques the exoticism and objectification prevalent in 19th-century French society, playing on anxieties around race and childbirth. The context, as we can see from the top of the lithograph "Au camp de S Maur", makes this critique even more pointed and critical. Editor: The title itself drips with irony. "Handsome Turk?" The woman's apparent fascination with the figures who are most likely enslaved or indentured servants is unsettling. It reveals a disturbing power dynamic. Curator: Precisely. Daumier uses satire to expose the hypocrisy and prejudice of the French Bourgeoisie, making it a powerful statement about the politics of looking. Editor: It's a stark reminder of how visual imagery can perpetuate—or challenge—cultural biases. Curator: Indeed. Daumier prompts us to question the gaze, even our own.