Art Lovers (c. 1863): Art, History and Details

Art Lovers (c. 1863) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Honoré Daumier was known for his witty depictions of contemporary Parisian types, including the art collectors seen in this drawing. The sheet belongs to a series in which the artist depicted these connoisseurs in the process of closely studying works of art. Although here, the men's focus seems sincere, in many works Daumier caricatured his subjects' greediness, smugness, or obliviousness.

Object facts

• Title: Art Lovers
• Date: c. 1863
• Creator attribution: Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Gray and black wash, charcoal, and graphite, with watercolor, on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Sheet: 26.2 x 19.4 cm (10 5/16 x 7 5/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1927.208

A detail from the museum

Honoré Daumier produced watercolors primarily for collectors of his work, suggesting that this image, somewhat ironically, was intended to be sold to the very figures it depicts.

Collection credit

Dudley P. Allen Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Champfleury. "L'Hotel des commissaires-priseurs (suite), l'amateur." Le Monde illustré 7, no. 314 (April 18, 1863): 253-254.
• Exposition des peintures et dessins de H. Daumier. Paris: Galeries Durand-Ruel, 1878.
• Alexandre, Arsène. Honoré Daumier: L'Homme et l'oeuvre. Paris: H. Laurens, 1888.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.