Le désespoir de Calypso. Dans le vain espoir d'oublier L'ingrat pour qui son cœur sanglote, Cette nymphe avait dans sa grotte Fait tendre un très joli papier. (Fénélon. Variante du L. XI.)
Le désespoir de Calypso. Dans le vain espoir d'oublier L'ingrat pour qui son cœur sanglote, Cette nymphe avait dans sa grotte Fait tendre un très joli papier. (Fénélon. Variante du L. XI.)
Title (alt.):
The despair of Calypso. In a vain attempt to forget The ungrateful who hurt her heart, This nymph remains in her cave Sends her lover back to wife and child. (Fénélon, Variation to Book XI.). Charivari
Description:
Daumier's print shows Calypso, left behind by Ulysses. Again Daumier produces a caricature of Greek beauty as understood during the 18th century… Calypso's dress and rolled down socks surely were not attracting a warrior and lover like Ulysses for long. During this time, 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.
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.
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Place of origin:
Paris
Notes:
3rd state.
Published in: Le Charivari, December 8, 1842.
Notes (acquisition):
Donated by: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman, 1959.
