What Is Described as...Going to the Country to Enjoy the Pleasures of Autumn 1845

Curator: This is Honoré Daumier's lithograph, "What Is Described as...Going to the Country to Enjoy the Pleasures of Autumn," held here at the Harvard Art Museums. Editor: It immediately strikes me as bleak. The rain, the figures trudging... there’s a real sense of disappointment. Curator: Absolutely. Daumier often used his art to critique the bourgeoisie. Here, we see them attempting a pastoral escape, but the weather, and likely their own dispositions, undermine the idyllic fantasy. Editor: Lithography allowed for mass production and dissemination of such social commentaries. Consider the labor involved in creating the image—the drawing on stone, the printing process—all to expose the manufactured pleasures of the upper class. Curator: And the very title drips with irony, doesn't it? The pursuit of leisure becomes a rather miserable affair, highlighting a disconnect between aspiration and reality. Editor: It really makes you wonder about the intended audience and the impact it had on social perceptions back then. Curator: Precisely. It's a work that challenges us to consider how social structures influence even our most private experiences. Editor: A potent reminder that even leisure is labor under capitalism.