The Engagement of an Artist. “- So you want an engagement in my theatre..... very well Mademoiselle...... since you are so pretty, it will be 1200 Francs.... that's of course what you will be paying me each year! - I accept... under the condition that I will not get a raise!,” plate 72 from Les Beaux Jours De La Vie 1845

Editor: So, here we have Honoré Daumier's lithograph from 1845, "The Engagement of an Artist," which is part of his series "Les Beaux Jours De La Vie." It's incredibly cynical! The woman looks resigned and the theatre manager looks sly. What strikes you most about it? Curator: It’s the power dynamic rendered so brilliantly in simple lines. The desperation and the…oh, I don’t know… the transaction of it all. The manager's puffed-up self-importance versus the artist's, ahem, practical bargain, is all there in their faces, isn’t it? It's theater *in* the theatre. Do you get the feeling this is a negotiation about art at all? Editor: Not really! More about survival. That offer sounds exploitative – accepting a role, but on the condition of never receiving a raise? What does that suggest about Daumier's view of artists' lives at the time? Curator: Exactly! It’s a bleak commentary, I reckon, on the economics of the arts and the sacrifices people make to practice their craft. Daumier saw, maybe all too clearly, the precariousness of it. The print medium itself suggests a widespread dissemination, doesn't it? Like a shared secret about the artistic life that we're now also in on. Isn't it funny? Editor: It is. It also highlights the timelessness of some struggles for artists! It’s both humorous and painfully relatable. I think I get Daumier's sardonic humor a bit better now. Curator: Indeed! And hopefully, we’ve helped others glimpse the artist's gaze. Always tinged with, shall we say, a touch of amused melancholy?