At the Deligny Baths. - The ladder at 4 p.m., plate 33 from Croquis D'été 1858

Curator: Let’s observe this lithograph by Honoré Daumier. Created in 1858, it's titled "At the Deligny Baths. - The ladder at 4 p.m.," a plate from his "Croquis D'Été" series and it is on display here at The Art Institute of Chicago. Editor: Immediately, I'm struck by the density and dynamism of the scene. There’s a kind of claustrophobic energy—a lot of bodies crammed into this bathing space. You feel a collective effervescence, despite the very mundane activity. Curator: Daumier, as an observer of Parisian life, was fascinated by portraying the everyday activities of the bourgeoisie. The bath, in this context, takes on symbolic weight. Water, a signifier of cleansing and renewal, acts here, somewhat ironically, as a site of public gathering, a social arena. Editor: Exactly. These communal baths weren't just for hygiene. They reveal the era's social stratification and its rituals around leisure. The different actions and expressions seem to signify some tension: look at those faces! Anxiety? Discomfort? Humorous despair, maybe? This isn't exactly the relaxing idyll that we might expect in an image of leisure. Curator: Yes, there’s an almost theatrical quality. Consider the ladder—a visual motif central to the composition. It alludes to upward social mobility, or perhaps the performative aspect of these spaces. People clambering for status or attention, maybe? Editor: And Daumier's loose, sketch-like rendering with lithography serves to underline the fleeting nature of the scene. It also humanizes his subjects, showing all the imperfect bodies without sentimentality. No classical idealism here. Curator: Precisely, a sort of anti-heroic presentation. I wonder what Daumier wished to tell the viewers by calling out the precise time in the title. Perhaps he meant to create an opportunity to pause and observe the ordinary and transient aspect of that single moment. Editor: For me, this lithograph captures a slice of 19th-century Parisian social reality and its anxieties. It's fascinating how an image of leisure can reveal underlying societal tensions, power dynamics, and that desire for social visibility. Curator: It highlights how such simple moments carry multilayered meanings that reflect deeper currents within a specific historical and cultural framework. Editor: Yes. Ultimately, it prompts us to consider the symbols and situations we inhabit and participate in today.