Honoré Daumier

Raphaël Gérard, Paris
Georges Renand, Paris
Jean-Claude Bellier, Paris (acquired in 1963)
Sale: Sotheby's, London, July  4, 1973, lot 213a
Ian Woodner, New York (acquired at the above sale)
Private collection, New York (and sold: Christie's, New York, May 9, 1991, lot 101)
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner

Karl E. Maison, Honoré Daumier, Catalogue Raisonné of the Paintings, Watercolors and Drawings, vol. II, Greenwich, 1968, p. 165, no. 490, illustrated pl. 167

Executed on cream laid paper. Work is attached to window mat with tape at the four corners and centers of four edges. Several layers of tape around the perimeter, residue from prior mountings. 1/4 inch tear at bottom right corner. On the verso: work is inscribed Daumier in pencil. Top edge of sheet is uneven on verso, but this is not visible on recto due to window mat. Minor foxing on verso. Work is in fairly good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

No theme is more prolific within Daumier's massive oeuvre than the human face, and few artists are as adept at rendering this notoriously complex subject. Trois spectateurs exemplifies Daumier's uncanny ability to capture precise emotional instants that flashed across the features of the individuals he encountered on a daily basis. The expressive line of Daumier's pen and ink under-drawing simultaneously delineates form, action and emotion as though the three faces are contorting before our eyes.

An assiduous documentarian, Daumier had a "benign receptivity to all manifestations of human emotion which made him a sympathetic observer and an astute journalist" (Colta Ives, "Contemporary Genre: Urbanity and Domesticity", Daumier Drawings, New York, 1992, p. 120) and allowed him to shift his gaze between those elements of society crying out for attention and the infinitely subtler characters of the sort pictured in Trois spectateurs. While in many cases Daumier's observations morphed into exaggerated caricatures of larger-than-life personalities, these three faces appear relatively stolid and are recognizable to us not as parodies but as a mirror to our own role as spectators. It is impossible to know what the three men are playing audience to- whether it is a performance of drama or mime of the sort Daumier himself frequented, a courtroom scene, or simply one of countless minor spectacles which would have defined the streets of 19th century Paris. Regardless, it is the universal humanity of the moment that Daumier has captured. As Colta Ives notes: "Underneath their top hats and bonnets, their waistcoats and crinolines, the faces, physiques, and postures that appear in Daumier's pictures could be those of any time or any place. They unite present and past, modern life and art's history, the specific and the general" (Colta Ives, "The Expressive Face, the Impressive Figure", Daumier Drawings, New York, 1992, p. 60).