J'veux a boire! Mais puisque j'vous dis ... c. 19th century

Curator: Here we have Honoré Daumier’s lithograph from the 19th century, titled “J’veux a boire! Mais puisque j’vous dis…”, or "I want to drink! But since I tell you…". Daumier, as we know, used his art to engage with and critique French society of his time. Editor: Immediately, the dizzying quality strikes me. The figure is leaning, clearly drunk, toward a shop window full of various liquids, with a second, presumably sober, figure grasping him. It feels unsteady and sad. Curator: Exactly. Daumier used his lithographs as potent forms of social commentary, widely distributed in newspapers like Le Charivari. This piece particularly plays into the social complexities and class dynamics around public intoxication. Editor: What’s interesting is how the artist frames the drunk man with these apothecary bottles and jars. He’s pursuing oblivion but surrounded by the supposed cures, tonics, and bitters offered by 19th century pharmacies and grocers. Are they the very things that enslaved him? Or is the cure available, merely tantalizing? The symbolism here is rife with a particular ambivalence. Curator: Indeed, and think about the title and the shopkeeper’s intervention as social theatre, revealing underlying class tensions. The print implicates its audience, raising complex questions about who controls the availability of substances and the performance of public behavior. Editor: The falling hat is such a melancholic touch as well. Like an echo of himself he has cast off in pursuit of drink. He is losing control, spilling over the edges of his carefully constructed social persona. He craves erasure, it’s heartbreaking. Curator: The setting adds another layer: A bustling street. Not just a personal struggle, but something acted out on a public stage. It's the artist emphasizing that drinking and being drunk wasn’t only a personal matter, but something for broader scrutiny. Editor: Considering Daumier’s work in this way gives us permission to look past the somewhat comic caricature and acknowledge the real human drama he captured. Curator: A potent reminder of the role art plays in framing these discussions, one we need now more than ever, I think.