Are you sure at least that I will be comfortable?, from 'News of the day,' published in Le Charivari, August 14, 1866

Art Historical Context

**"Are you sure at least I will be comfortable?" is a witty lithograph by Honoré Daumier the renowned French caricaturist, in the satirical newspaper *Le Charari* on August , 1866, as part of its "News of the Day series. Created in collaboration with artists like Arnaud de Vresse andouches, this third-state impression on newsprint captures Daumier's signature style of sharp social commentary through exaggerated figures and expressive lines. Measuring about 9½ × 8⅝ inches, it exemplifies mid-19th-century lithography, a technique Daumier mastered to produce affordable, mass-distributed prints that critiqued contemporary life. Set against the backdrop of Second Empire France under Napoleon III, the image uses biting satire to poke fun at gender roles and women's experiences, as suggested by its provocative title and tags highlighting women and satire. Daumier, a pioneer of the caricature genre, often lampooned bourgeois pretensions, fashion excesses like crinolines, and marital dynamics, making everyday absurdities resonate with readers. Published in *Le Charivari*—a hub for political and social humor since 1832—this piece reflects the era's growing press freedom and public appetite for irreverent art. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department (Rogers Fund, 1922), it showcases lithography's democratic power: quick to produce, vivid in tone, and enduring in cultural critique. Visitors will appreciate how Daumier's masterful shading and dynamic compositions turn a fleeting newspaper image into timeless commentary on human folly.

About the Artist

Arnaud de Vresse|Destouches|Honoré Daumier (French|French|French) · 1808 |1800 |1856 –1879 |1900 |1870

French, Marseilles 1808–1879 Valmondois|Paris|