Bobonne, Bobonne! tu me ferais un monstre comme ça, ne le regarde pas tant!
Title (alt.):
Little wife, little wife! you would have a monster like that, don't look at him so much!. Charivari
Description:
A crowd is looking at an orangutan. A man pulls his pregnant wife and son away and asks her not to look at the animal for fear her baby may wind up looking like the ape. Meanwhile, the husband and his son already appear ape-like. LES ORANG-OUTANS (The orang-outangs) is a series of 4 lithographs, of which 3 appeared in the Charivari between September 21 and November 8, 1836. The fourth plate can only be found as “hors texte” (without text). In 1836 for the first time a live orang-outang by the name of Jack was exhibited in Paris. This inspired Grandville, Traviès and also Daumier to depict animals disguised as humans in their caricatures. The similarity between Mayeux and the ape is striking, and so is his fear that his wife might give birth to a monkey just by looking at one. TRAVIES DE VILLERS, Charles Joseph (1804-1859) was a painter and caricaturist, working for the newspapers „Charivari“ and „Caricature“. He created the fictitious personality “Mayeux”, a pendant to Daumier’s “Robert Macaire". MAYEUX was small, often drunk, a typical bourgeois who was proud of his participation at the "Trois Glorieuses".
Copyright restrictions may apply. For permission to copy or use this image, contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries. The following credit line must be included with each item used: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman Collection of Honoré Daumier Lithographs, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.
Contact host institution for more information.
Place of origin:
Paris
Notes:
3rd state.
Published in: Le Charivari, November 8, 1836.
Notes (acquisition):
Donated by: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman, 1959.
