See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"

See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War and the fall of Napoleon III, thousands of working-class Parisians revolted against the new royalist-leaning, Versailles-based government and declared Paris an independent commune on March 28, 1871. Published just two days after the proclamation, this print shows Daumier’s concern for the lives already lost in recent conflict and the bloodshed to come. An allegory of Paris points to a hillside filled with graves to tell the cowering reactionary that there are more than enough dead. This work proved to be prophetic as the Commune ended two months later with violent suppression by the French Army, known as "Bloody Week."


Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"See, Mr. Réac, it is quite enought!, from 'News of the day,' published in "Le Charivari"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.