The Republic (Daumier)

Painting by Honoré Daumier

The Republic

Artist| Honoré Daumier
Year| 1848
Medium| Oil on canvas
Dimensions| 73 cm × 60 cm (29 in × 24 in)
Location| Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Republic, known in French as La République, is an oil-on-canvas painting by the French artist Honoré Daumier, created in 1848. It is a sketch made for a contest that would decide an official painting destined to represent the French Second Republic. It is held at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.[1]

## History and description

[edit]

The French Second Republic was proclaimed on 24 February 1848, to replace the deposed king Louis Philippe. The new regime started a competition on 14 March 1848 for a sketch that would define the official image of the republic. Daumier, who was a republican and a firm supporter of the new regime, was one of the 700 artists who entered the competition, including Jean-Léon Gérôme and Hippolyte Flandrin, with their final sketches shown at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, from 5 to 8 April 1848.[2][3]

The painting by Daumier, who was best known as a caricaturist, attracted much attention for its composition, which seemed inspired by the Italian painter Andrea del Sarto's work Charity. It represents a half-naked woman, representing the republic, seated, with long brown hair, wearing the Phrygian cap and proudly holding the French tricolour flag with her right hand. The big and muscular woman is breastfeeding two also muscular toddlers, while a third child is seated at her feet, concentrating on her reading. The official website of the Musée d'Orsay states that "this "big woman" summed up an ideal, that of a strong republic, nourishing and educating her children. A "fertile, serene and glorious" republic claiming its descent from the first great republic which had abolished slavery; the republic whose flag had circled the world."[1][4]

Daumier had positive critics and was placed in 11th place in the contest. However, he did not take part in the final selection, since he never made the expected painting.[1][2][5]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "La République". Musée d'Orsay. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
2. ^ a b "Honoré Daumier Paintings, Bio, Ideas". The art story. Retrieved 1 July 2022.
3. ^ Anne Wagner; Richard K. Sherwin, eds. (2014). Law, Culture and Visual Studies. Springer. p. 441-442.
4. ^ Gal Ventura (2018). Maternal Breast-Feeding and Its Substitutes in Nineteenth-Century French Art. Leiden, Boston: Brill. p. 159-160. ISBN 9789004376755.
5. ^ Eitner, Lorenz (2002). An Outline Of 19th Century European Painting: From David Through Cezanne'. New York: Routledge. p. 1861.

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Honoré Daumier

Paintings|

* The Republic (1848)
* Ecce Homo (1850)
* The Emigrants (c. 1852–1855)
* Melodrama (c. 1860)
* The Laundress (c. 1863)
* The Chess Players (c. 1863–1867)
* Don Quixote and Sancho Panza (c. 1868)

Painting series|

* The Third-Class Carriage (c. 1856–1858, c. 1862–1864, c. 1863–1865)

Related|

* Alexandre Lenoir (protector)
* La Caricature (1830–1843)
* Le Charivari (1832–1937)
* Realism

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Musée d'Orsay

Building

* Gare d'Orsay

Paintings

| French|

* Baader: Remorse
* Bartholomé: In the Conservatory
* Bastien-Lepage: Haymaking
* Bazille: The Family Reunion – The Improvised Field Hospital – The Pink Dress – Bazille's Studio
* Belly: Pilgrims going to Mecca
* Bonnard: Woman with a Cat
* Bonheur: Ploughing in the Nivernais
* Bouguereau: The Birth of Venus – La Danse – Dante and Virgil – Equality Before Death – Les Oréades
* Boulanger: Répétition du "Joueur de flûte" et de "La femme de Diomède" chez le prince Napoléon
* Bracquemond: The Lady in White – Three Women with Parasols
* Cabanel: The Birth of Venus
* Caillebotte: Les raboteurs de parquet – Partie de bateau – Vue de toits (Effet de neige)
* Cézanne: The Hanged Man's House – The Card Players – Portrait of Gustave Geffroy
* Chassériau: Arab Chiefs Challenging each other to Single Combat under the Ramparts of a City
* de Chavannes: The Poor Fisherman – The Turtle Seller
* Courbet: A Burial at Ornans – L'Origine du monde – The Painter's Studio – Le ruisseau noir – The Wounded Man
* Couture: The Romans in their Decadence
* Daubigny: The Harvest
* Daumier: The Laundress – The Republic
* Degas: L'Absinthe – The Bellelli Family – Café-Concert at Les Ambassadeurs (1885) – Les Choristes – The Orchestra at the Opera – Portraits at the Stock Exchange – The Tub
* Dehodencq: Boabdil's Farewell to Granada
* Delacroix: Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable
* Denis: Homage to Cézanne
* Detaille: The Dream
* Doré: The Enigma
* Fantin-Latour: Around the Piano – The Corner of the Table – Homage to Delacroix – A Studio at Les Batignolles
* Gauguin: Arearea – The Beautiful Angel – Breton Peasant Women – The Schuffenecker Family – Self-Portrait in a Hat – Self-Portrait with the Yellow Christ – Tahitian Women on the Beach – Vairumati
* Gérôme: The Cock Fight – Jerusalem – Reception of the Grand Condé at Versailles
* Gervex: A Session of the Painting Jury
* Glaize: The Gallic Women: Episode from the Roman Invasion
* Ingres: The Source
* Laurens: The Excommunication of Robert the Pious
* Lefebvre: The Truth
* Luce: The Quai Saint-Michel and Notre-Dame
* Manet: The Balcony – Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets – Blonde Woman with Bare Breasts – Bullfight – Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe – Flowers in a Crystal Vase – The Fifer – Madame Manet at the Piano – Olympia – The Port of Boulogne by Moonlight – Portrait of Clemenceau – Portrait of Emile Zola – Portrait of Marguerite de Conflans [1] – Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Manet – Portrait of Stéphane Mallarmé – The Reading – A Sprig of Asparagus – The Waitress
* Matisse: Luxe, Calme et Volupté
* Meissonier: French Campaign, 1814 – The Siege of Paris
* Millet: The Angelus – The Gleaners – Shepherdess with her Flock – The Winnower
* Monet: The Artist's Garden at Giverny – A Cart on the Snowy Road at Honfleur – Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe – The Magpie – Regatta at Argenteuil – Resting Under a Lilac Bush – The Road in Front of Saint-Simeon Farm in Winter – Women in the Garden
* Moreau: The Apparition
* Morisot: The Cradle
* Motte: The Fiancée of Belus
* Ottmann: The Luxembourg Station in Brussels
* Regnault: Summary Execution under the Moorish Kings of Granada
* Renoir: Bal du moulin de la Galette – The Bathers – Dance in the City – Dance in the Country – Frédéric Bazille at his Easel – Girls at the Piano – Portrait of the Painter Claude Monet – Portrait of William Sisley – The Swing
* Rousseau: The Snake Charmer
* Sérusier: The Talisman
* Seurat: The Circus
* Sisley: Avenue of Poplars near Moret-sur-Loing – The Canal du Loing – The Canal Saint-Martin – Chemin de la Machine, Louveciennes – The Forge at Marly-le-Roi – Regatta at Molesey near Hampton Court – Resting by a Stream at the Edge of the Wood – Rue de la Chaussée in Argenteuil – View of the Canal Saint-Martin – The Village of Voisins
* Toulouse-Lautrec: Le Lit – La Toilette

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American|

* Harrison: Solitude
* Tanner: The Resurrection of Lazarus
* Whistler: Whistler's Mother

Belgian|

* van Rysselberghe: Sailboats and Estuary
* Stevens: The Bath – What is Called Vagrancy

British|

* Burne-Jones: The Wheel of Fortune

Dutch|

* Van Gogh: L'Arlésienne – Bedroom in Arles (3rd version) – The Church at Auvers – Starry Night Over the Rhône – Portrait of Dr. Gachet (2nd version) – Doctor Gachet's Garden in Auvers – Imperial Fritillaries in a Copper Vase – Self-portrait

Finnish|

* Edelfelt: Pasteur's portrait by Edelfelt

Italian|

* Boldini: Madame Charles Max – Portrait of Robert de Montesquiou

Spanish|

* Sorolla: The Return from Fishing: Hauling the Boat

Sculptures

| French|

* Barrias: Nature Unveiling Herself Before Science
* Clésinger: Woman Bitten by a Serpent
* Claudel: The Mature Age
* Delaplanche: Virgin with a Lily
* Jacquemart: Rhinocéros
* Gauguin: Objet décoratif carré avec dieux tahitiens – Oviri

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* [1] On display at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse

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