Honore Daumier’s painting, “Crispin and Scapin” depicts two characters exchanging confidences from the play “The Tricks of Scapin” by Molière. Created in 1864, the artwork is on display at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris and represents Daumier’s shift from caricature to painting and sculpture. The painter’s style was influenced by Francisco Goya, Eugène Delacroix, and Théodore Géricault, with loose brushwork and a focus on emotions and drama.
Daumier can produce around 4000 lithographs that satirize political figures and bourgeois society during his career in caricature. He was known as the “Michelango of Caricature.” Nonetheless, this painting reflects his evolution away from portraying satire with humour to more restrained works. In this particular work are two figures leaning fraternally over one another whispering conversations while holding a paper with lists or instructions.
Although not much is recorded about Crispin and Scapin’s origins exactly or how it correlates to the play of Molière altogether, we know that several great painters have immortalized these characters since they gained fame through theatrical performances – especially Commedia dell’Arte-themed plays which tend to characterise individuals distinctly. This work displays an elaborate drapery hanging over Scapin’s chair; he has a hat atop his head as if set aside for what seems to be very whimsical planning in progress between both men. Through Daumier’s depiction of their interaction we can perceive exchanges between characters leading up to conniving plans for trickery or other clever ploys due to subtle visual cues suggested within a glimpse into complex social dynamics taking place during such times through theatre pieces like this one.
Overall, Honore Daumier’s “Crispin and Scapin” painting brings out an important representation of theatrical performance popularised throughout history with varying degrees of popularity while capturing traditional life too along the way – all conveyed through different lenses created uniquely by each artist who ever chose them as subjects worth preserving forever within paint covered canvas.
