Examinant le nouveau plafond ... c. 19th century

Honoré Daumier made this lithograph, titled "Examining the New Ceiling Painted by Delacroix at the Louvre," in France sometime in the 1850s. The print depicts a crowd of Parisians gazing upward, presumably at the newly installed ceiling by Eugène Delacroix in the Louvre Museum. Daumier's image speaks volumes about the evolving role of museums and public art in 19th-century France. In this era, art became increasingly accessible to the masses. The Louvre, once a royal palace, opened to the public during the French Revolution. Daumier’s cartoon depicts a Parisian public very keen to visit the Louvre and admire the art displayed, but they are of course a mixed bunch. By creating this slightly satirical image, is Daumier celebrating or poking fun at this new art appreciation by the masses? To understand this work more deeply, one might research the Salon culture of the time, the politics of art criticism, and the broader transformations in French society during the Second Empire. Ultimately, this lithograph reminds us that art exists within a complex web of social, cultural, and institutional forces, and that understanding these forces is essential to interpreting its meaning.