Setting Out for the Ball 1847

Curator: This is Honoré Daumier's print, “Setting Out for the Ball,” which currently resides at the Harvard Art Museums. It immediately strikes me as satirical. Editor: Yes, a deeply satirical commentary! The figure seems trapped in the grotesque performance of bourgeois expectations. It’s a body made monstrous by its own desires. Curator: I think it's less about desire and more about delusion. He seems so blissfully unaware of how absurd he looks in his Cupid costume, which adds a layer of tragicomedy. Editor: And isn't that precisely the tragedy? He's complicit, performing gender and class in ways that expose the artificiality of both. The mirror becomes a site of misrecognition. Curator: I'd say it's a reflection of societal pressures, distorted and exaggerated. It's funny, yet deeply unsettling. Editor: Yes, a mirror reflecting back not reality, but the violence of social construction. Curator: In any case, Daumier manages to capture a truth about vanity and social climbing. Editor: Absolutely.