A Last Toast! “Gentlemen, let's not go back on board without a final toast in honour of the two things which, most of all, bring charm to our lives... let's drink to the ladies and cold veal!,” plate 18 from Les Canotiers Parisiens 1843

Curator: Ah, this print absolutely tickles me. I love that Daumier makes the viewer part of the revelry, like we've stumbled into a back-room tavern ourselves. It’s called "A Last Toast! 'Gentlemen, let's not go back on board without a final toast in honour of the two things which, most of all, bring charm to our lives... let's drink to the ladies and cold veal!,'" and it was created in 1843. Quite the party sentiment, isn't it? Editor: The exuberance is undeniable, though a bit unruly. I notice immediately the tension between the structured setting—the table, chairs—and the wild expressions of the figures, particularly the man standing, proposing the toast. A definite study in contrasts. Curator: You zero right in, as always! Daumier had such a knack for capturing, with just a few deft lines, the chaos of ordinary life, the kind of slightly silly and definitely boozy scene unfolding at that very moment in Paris, if we listened hard enough. Don't you think his cross-hatching emphasizes the fleeting moment, almost smudged by laughter and too much wine? Editor: Indeed. Structurally, the strong diagonals—the arms, the angle of the table—push the eye deeper into the scene. The dark bottle acts almost as an anchor, grounding the swirling chaos, a dark mass holding the composition from spinning away, you know? But look how Daumier disrupts formal rigidity through exaggerated facial expressions and bodily gestures. The foreground figures also create this division between the spectacle of entertainment and its recipients; a clever contrast between exuberance and observation. Curator: Precisely! I picture myself there with my comrades, perhaps slightly over-animated, definitely spilling something, just reveling in the humor of it all, the delicious irony, you could feel that warm breath on your face just by looking at this lithograph. I think the reason why Daumier decided to work with this method is exactly because it allows capturing that effect. Editor: The plate embodies a carnivalesque energy, subverting polite society through its vulgar subject matter and caricature. In this sense, it also works to expose that kind of social behaviour; the piece does not hold back on it and portrays that energy very well through structure. But also that humoristic moment between 'toasting to women and cold meat', a statement that speaks for itself. Curator: Ah, what a delicious toast! I almost feel tipsy just thinking about Daumier's rendering of it all. This piece has some weight and a beautiful touch of spontaneity that one can expect from it. Editor: A well-structured study of a riotous occasion and its social underpinnings, for sure. This print definitely serves to the occasion.