Madeleine to Bastille. The Paris Bus from the Madeleine to the Bastille. A Breath, a Nothing. And Suddenly the Bus is Full by Honoré Daumier, 1808-1879

Honoré Daumier, 1808-1879
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Madeleine to Bastille. The Paris Bus from the Madeleine to the Bastille. A Breath, a Nothing. And Suddenly the Bus is Full

Original lithograph in black ink. 1862. Rare. Signed with initials in the stone lower left. Sur blanc - white paper ?collectors? impression without any text verso. De luxe edition on special china paper. As issued for Souvenirs d?Artistes, 1862.
Ref: Delteil 3243 ii.

Superb rich ad highly tonal impression. On white chine appliqué on a soft white wove backing sheet, as issued. Excellent original condition; not restored, one or two faint spots in the outer margins only, the image not affected. Full margins. Sheet: 17" x 12". Image (no inner border): 9" x8 5/8". (241x220mm).

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This scene in the Paris bus is one of the most famous non-political images in Daumier?s oeuvre and a superlative example of the genius of his drawing. In the early period of the use of lithography as an artistic medium no artist achieved greater peaks of creativity. From his earliest lithographs he saw how an extraordinary range of tone and depth of light and line could be instilled into the image through differing densities, widths and textures in the chalk. By the height of his career it is said that he had some 30 differing types of crayon and stump with which to draw. At the peak of his powers, as in this scene, he combined this technical command of the medium with an inspiration in actual drawing which places him permanently amongst the greatest of all master draughtsmen.

Daumier?s outstanding ability as a caricaturist, and that which lifted his work into the highest levels of creative art, was his ability to combine humour with superlative observation about human nature and behaviour, and to link the two as art through the handling of composition. The expressions on the faces of the seated passengers on the bus, the thoughts expressed through the poses of their bodies, - the little man peering round the enormous bulk of ?mere nothing? who has clambered into the already crowded interior for example -, these are all expressed in a way which is drawing and printmaking at its classical greatest.