Art Institute of Chicago

A Candidate. “Who do you want?... An upright, conscientious, sober man, an industrialist, a man who doesn't need the government to enrich himself, a man familiar with the law, who knows it well, through practice, very long practice... a long practice of law... you can't choose any better than... my honorable friend,” plate 48 from Caricaturana

Honoré Victorin Daumier (French, 1808-1879)LinkedCulture matchlcp-fe10ac0cfdd9

Date

1837

Medium

Hand-colored lithograph in black, heightened with gum arabic on ivory wove paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

Object ID

159320

Daumier could no longer overtly criticize the French government in his art after King Louis Philippe imprisoned him for six months in 1832. In this print, however, the artist derived his humor not from character assassination but from the buildup the perpetually scheming Robert Macaire, an archetypal villain from French popular literature, gives his preferred candidate, the rotund gentleman standing in the middle.

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.