Chez le tailleur chez le coiffeur c. 19th century

Curator: I find myself chuckling at this lithograph by Honoré Daumier, likely from the mid-19th century, titled "Chez le tailleur chez le coiffeur." Editor: Yes, there’s something inherently comical about it. The figures are so exaggerated; there’s a tension between humor and maybe…discomfort? I feel like it taps into anxieties around appearance and social norms, doesn’t it? Curator: Absolutely. Daumier was a master of social satire, and this piece speaks volumes about the rituals we undertake in pursuit of societal acceptance. The top half, "At the Tailor’s," features two panels depicting men being quite literally wrestled into their coats, perhaps a comment on the constraints of fashionable dress. Editor: The body language is fascinating; it’s almost aggressive! There’s a vulnerability there, too – the clients being manhandled seem resigned to their fate. You can definitely connect this to a broader discourse around male identity in the 19th century – how it was constructed and enforced through fashion and social expectations. Curator: Exactly! And below, "At the Barber’s," continues that theme, but in a more intimate setting. The barber is towering over the seated customer, wielding scissors like a weapon. It gets to thinking about power dynamics within these seemingly mundane encounters. Editor: It's a real commentary on class too. Think about the barber being a 'working man' controlling the appearance of a bourgeois individual, like forcing conformity on to this patron in ways he probably never feels at the stock exchange. The almost grotesque caricature allows Daumier to unearth a tension hidden beneath the surface of everyday transactions. Curator: Daumier really captures the zeitgeist through a focus on mundane experiences. By pushing everything to an absurd extreme, he reveals underlying tensions in society that would normally be easy to ignore. Editor: It makes you wonder who and what these images were for and whom he intended to satirize the most! I think it definitely brings a sharp sense of class critique to the fore and lets us revisit the power imbalances, that unfortunately are still so recognizable to our societies today.