A Revolt On Board. “- Ah! you want to be your own captain!... - Ah! you are treating me like an idiot... hey... I hope the Seine washes away that insult!,” plate 13 from Les Canotiers Parisiens 1843

Honoré Daumier created this lithograph, A Revolt On Board, using a limestone matrix and greasy crayon. It's an image pulled directly from the world of Parisian leisure. The lithographic process is interesting, because it enabled the relatively quick and cheap reproduction of images for mass consumption. Daumier made his name doing satirical prints for journals, reflecting and shaping public opinion. Here, we see a spat between boaters. The artist’s hand is evident in the active lines, giving a sense of the figures' instability. The artist is less interested in surface appearances, than in capturing a mood, and the social dynamics of the 19th century French society. The very making of this image speaks to those dynamics too. Daumier's print is not just a picture, it's a document of a changing society, and the means by which that change was understood and debated. It challenges our assumptions about what art can be, and who it is for.