Karikatuur van een Fransman in een Engels restaurant 1843

This lithograph, made by Honoré Daumier, captures a scene in an English restaurant. Daumier was a master of this printmaking technique, which involves drawing on a flat stone with a greasy crayon, then using acid to etch the design. Here, the stark contrasts of light and shadow, achieved through the lithographic process, contribute to the caricature's biting social commentary. The print is from a series called 'Caricatures du Jour', and intended for mass consumption in a daily newspaper. It makes you wonder about the division of labor involved: from the stone quarried from the earth, to the lithographer's workshop, to the printing presses and the news vendors on the streets. Daumier's prints are infused with the social and political tensions of 19th-century France, laying bare the economic disparities of Parisian society, and how even a meal can be turned into a mark of class difference. This work offers a window into the world of labor, politics, and consumption. It encourages us to look beyond the surface of the image and consider the hands that made it, and the social forces that shaped its meaning.