"I've never laughed so much as at the burial of the girl at Bourdin" 1862

Curator: Honoré Daumier, that master of observation, created this lithograph. The title, a real mouthful, is "I've never laughed so much as at the burial of the girl at Bourdin." A sentiment, I suspect, dripping with irony. Editor: It's ironic, for sure. Looking at these caricatured figures, the density of the lines, there's a discomfort in their apparent merriment—a commentary, perhaps, on societal hypocrisy in grief. Curator: Exactly! Daumier had this incredible knack for capturing the less palatable aspects of human nature. This piece is, for me, about the commodification of grief, or the performance of it, anyway. Editor: These men, gathered with their drinks so close to a burial... I am put in mind of the carnivalesque inversions explored by Mikhail Bakhtin, where ritual mockery exposes social fault lines. Are they laughing *at* the girl, or *at* the absurdity of death itself? Curator: It's definitely layered. Perhaps they are laughing to keep from crying. Death is a difficult subject, and humor is sometimes the only way to cope. Editor: Perhaps, and Daumier certainly gives us plenty to think about—from class dynamics to the role of societal expectation. What a powerful commentary he made with a simple lithograph. Curator: Yes, Daumier really was masterful at finding the humor in despair, and the despair in humor. Editor: A bleak, unsettling, yet ultimately human perspective.