Karikatuur van een jager in de regen 1843

This is a lithograph made by Honoré Daumier. The print on paper shows a caricature of a hunter in the rain. Daumier was a master of lithography, a printmaking technique that relies on the chemical repulsion of oil and water. The artist draws an image on a flat stone with a greasy crayon, then applies ink to the stone. The ink adheres only to the greasy areas, which are then transferred to paper under pressure. Daumier used lithography to produce thousands of satirical prints for the French press. Here, the rapid, sketchy lines perfectly capture the discomfort of a hunter caught in a downpour. You can almost feel the dampness and the weight of the rain. Daumier elevated what was a commercial process to the level of fine art. He used the inherent qualities of the medium, its capacity for tonal range and expressive mark-making, to create images that are both humorous and deeply human. By blurring the lines between art and illustration, Daumier challenged the traditional hierarchy of the art world.