Est-il dieu permis... fendre du bois... 1847

This is an undated lithograph by Honoré Daumier titled "Est-il dieu permis... fendre du bois...". Here, we witness a domestic scene laden with unspoken tension. A man forcefully chops wood, his raised axe a stark symbol of pent-up aggression, while another man watches with a peculiar expression. The hat atop the dresser and the wood splitting are charged with meaning. Consider the wood axe; it echoes the Labrys of ancient Crete, a symbol of female power and transformation, now wielded in a domestic dispute. Think too of other artists' representation of power tools, as symbols of manliness. Through the ages, the hat has also recurred as a mark of status, a symbol of belonging to something. Placed on the dresser, next to the wood-splitting scene, we are left to wonder to whom this status belongs. In Daumier's hands, the mundane act of chopping wood becomes a raw display of emotion, revealing how symbols, like echoes, resonate across time, constantly reinterpreted through the lens of human experience.