A Practical Joke. "Driver! Driver! Do you still have two seats in the rabbit section??,” plate 24 from Les Baigneurs 1842

Curator: This drawing, rendered in lithographic ink on paper, is called "A Practical Joke. 'Driver! Driver! Do you still have two seats in the rabbit section??,' plate 24 from Les Baigneurs". Honoré Daumier created it in 1842. The Art Institute of Chicago currently holds it. Editor: It’s witty, immediately grabbing your attention. There’s a raw energy in the pen strokes, a sense of spontaneous observation. It has that quintessential romantic style with caricatured characters. Curator: Absolutely, and that spontaneity masks Daumier's keen social critique. These were published in magazines, and he skillfully lampoons bourgeois society under the guise of simple, funny scenes. Think of him as an 1840's social media commentator. Editor: The question, "Do you still have two seats in the rabbit section?" feels particularly pointed. Can you tell me more about this comment? What could the term "rabbit section" reference within its own socio-historical context? Curator: It’s dripping with class commentary. This print forms part of his critique on wealth disparities and, importantly, the newly accessible culture of leisure. To ask for seats in the "rabbit section" seems a facetious and satirical question for the bourgeoisie to request given their societal status. They were no common animal, after all! It draws into question gender roles and race issues within society, though subtly and cynically. Editor: The naked bather hailing the carriage in contrast to those well-dressed passengers in the carriage encapsulates the core class division so powerfully. The expressions Daumier captured! Curator: Precisely. And that’s why his work endures. He isn't merely documenting life; he's dissecting it, inviting viewers to question those power structures. Editor: Looking at Daumier’s lithographs today allows us to look at class dynamics in earlier eras, though also to contemplate continuations of inequity and marginalisation which still exist today. Curator: A perfect demonstration of how the visual culture of the past has much to teach the present, then.