The Purchase of a Clock Painting - The Inexpressible Delight of the Bourgeois Who Hears Noon Strike with the Tolling of a Bell 1847

Curator: This is Honoré Daumier's lithograph, "The Purchase of a Clock Painting - The Inexpressible Delight of the Bourgeois Who Hears Noon Strike with the Tolling of a Bell." Editor: The man's posture is almost comical, utterly captivated by that clock tower image. There is something quietly absurd in the way he reveres time. Curator: Daumier was a master of social satire, wasn't he? This print comes from a series called "Les Bons Bourgeois," poking fun at the values of the middle class in 19th-century Paris. Editor: The clock tower within the painting seems less about telling time and more about symbolizing order and status. The bell suggests the relentless march of industrial time, and the bourgeois embracing it. Curator: Precisely! It's about the bourgeoisie's desire for respectability, measured by their adherence to schedules and routines—a commentary on the societal pressures of the time. Editor: Daumier's crosshatching enhances the somber mood, yet a touch of humor lightens the otherwise austere commentary. I find it darkly funny.