Musical Notes by Honoré Daumier: Prints from the Collection of Egon and Belle Gartenberg
June 30 to December 13, 1998
Honoré Daumier (1808Ð1879) is regarded as one of the most important French artists of the nineteenth century. Active as a painter, sculptor, and printmaker, Daumier participated in the century's growing interest in realism, or scenes of everyday life. Although Daumier was not a musician, musical themes appeared in his artwork throughout his career.
This exhibition showcases forty-two musically oriented lithographs from the collection of Egon and Belle Gartenberg. Professor Egon Gartenberg (1911-1982) was a music historian at Penn State Mont Alto who, together with his wife, Belle, collected Daumier lithographs for a number of years. The collection consists of musical prints that parody musical figures of the nineteenth century including Hector Berlioz, Franz Liszt, Gioachino Rossini, and Niccolò Paganini. Most of the lithographs however, display the amateur practice of music by everyday Parisians.
Daumier was best known in his day as a caricaturist for the illustrated press in Paris. He also contributed many lithographs to journals such as Le Charivari, a daily paper composed of satirical articles on a wide range of social, cultural, and political issues. As a keen observer of contemporary life, the artist portrayed the social manners and cultural practices of his age.
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