Le vieux clown (Paillasse)

Daumier, Honoré (1808-1879)

Le vieux clown, ou Paillasse (The Old Clown)
s.d.
Watercolor, 17.1 × 10.5 cm
Musée du LouvreParis

The theme of the old clown (or Paillasse), of which several versions are known, takes place in the series of Daumier‘s research describing the world of jugglers and acrobats, wrestlers and masks, pierrots and columbines, or conjurers performing at the Foire du Trône in Paris. (…) This watercolor proves the perfect mastery of Daumier placing the color directly on the sheet without the slightest preparatory drawing; then he adds in pen and black ink, with a line so rapid and incisive that it appears shaky, the elements of the silhouette and the details of the costume. This ease of writing evokes the incomparable fertility of his profession as an illustrator. (Roger-Marx Donations, 1980-1981) (Louvre)