LE VENTRE LEGISLATIF. Aspect des bancs ministériels de la chambre improstituée de 1834

Creator Honoré Daumier (French, 1808 - 1879)

Date1834

Mediumlithograph on wove paper

DimensionsImage: 28 x 43 cm (11 x 16 15/16 in.)
35 x 51 cm (13 3/4 x 20 1/16 in.)

Credit LineGift of the Trier-Fodor Foundation, 1988

Object number88/83

ProvenanceLE VENTRE LEGISLATIF is one of Daumier’s most famous prints and a key work in the AGO’s print collection. A masterful work of the French legislative body as it appeared in 1834, this lithograph contains 35 figures, many of whom have been identified and represented in individual prints by Daumier (including d’Argout, Prunelle, Soult, Guizot, Persil, Thiers, Podenas, Keratry, Fruchard,etc.) . The figures that are recognizable were all modelled in clay by Daumier between 1832 and 1834. The print directly attacks Louis-Philippe’s governing body and the inadequacy of its members. The figures are portrayed satirically across four semicircular chamber benches, and act as the core of the King’s belly and body politic. These men campaigned against the republicans and were responsible for bestowing taxes and fines on the press. Philipon and his team of newspaper workers were always at odds with these legislators and the governing system. The monumental scale of the lithograph elevates its stature to the level of high art. A key to the list of identified figures is available in Henri Loyrette et al., Daumier 1808-1879, p. 174 and in Edwin D. T. Bechtel, Freedom of the Press and L’Association mensuelle: Philipon versus Louis-Philippe, plate 18.

LocationNot currently on display

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