“- How do you find this saint there.... I tried to not make him look too conventional.... The bourgeois: - I quite agree, a Saint never should look short winded,” plate 80 from Les Bons Bourgeois 1847

Editor: This is plate 80 from "Les Bons Bourgeois" a lithograph drawing by Honoré Daumier, created in 1847. There’s something almost unsettling in the sketchiness of the figures, yet I find myself drawn to the artist's satirical take on the subject matter. What do you see in this print? Curator: I see a calculated arrangement of line and form employed to convey social commentary. Observe the stark contrast in linework – hatching is clustered tightly to give weight to the bourgeois figures and diminish any real depth; in contrast, see how the saint is rendered as a collection of loosely drawn wispy lines. This reinforces their perceived moral and aesthetic deficiencies compared to the insubstantial form of religious authority on the wall. Editor: That’s an interesting reading. I hadn’t considered the way Daumier uses line to differentiate the classes. Does the visual tension further suggest that he’s critiquing societal values, even if in subtle terms? Curator: Indeed. The artist, by foregrounding the ‘bourgeois,’ suggests that art of this period had to reckon with them – their tastes, patronage, and indeed values. Look at the caricature; observe that its target is perhaps not religion but the patron's self-satisfied reading of the image. Daumier has exposed the cultural emptiness and intellectual inertia of this specific social class. Editor: It’s amazing how a relatively simple lithograph can contain such layers of meaning. I now look at art with far more attention. Curator: The interplay of form, line, and the strategic distortion of perspective invite us to think more critically about social dynamics within this print. The key, like Daumier implies, is active critical viewing.