Le Futur monument de Napoléon aux Invalides 1842

Here we see Honoré Daumier’s lithograph, "The Future Monument to Napoleon at the Invalides." Although undated, it likely originates from the 1830s or 40s, a period of disillusionment following the Napoleonic era. Daumier critiques the societal amnesia around the human cost of Napoleon’s ambition. A veteran with an empty collection plate stands beside a mother and child peering into a hole in the ground, supposedly the monument’s foundation. Their straining to see parallels France’s willful blindness to the grim realities of war and empire. Inscribed below, the text sarcastically remarks on the monument's emptiness, quipping "the less we see a monument, the more beautiful it is!" Daumier suggests that monuments often serve to obscure rather than reveal. It compels us to confront how public memory and national identity are constructed through selective narratives and erasures. Through this satirical image, Daumier invites us to reflect on the relationship between remembrance, representation, and the uncomfortable truths that monuments often conceal.