Décidément, ce qui, cette année, obtient le plus de succès à l'exposition de sculpture..., from Le Salon de 1857, published in "Le Charivari"

Art Historical Context

Step into the satirical world of 19th-century Paris with *Décidément, ce qui cette année, obtient le de succès à l'exposition sculpture...*, a lithograph from Honoré Daumier’s *Le Salon de 1857*, published in the irreverent newspaper *Le Chariv* on July 21, 1857. Daumier, a master caricaturist alongside collaborators Aaron Martinet and Dest, skewers the pomp of the annual Paris Salon—the era’s premier art showcase. The title, translating to “Decidedly, what’s getting the most success this year at the sculpture exhibition…,” mocks the fickle tastes of the bourgeois crowd, likely fixated on a trendy sculpture featuring men, women, and swans. This second-state lithograph exemplifies Daumier’s signature style within the Realism movement, blending sharp social commentary with dynamic, expressive lines. Printed on a modest sheet of 11 3/4 × 14 1/8 inches, it captures the absurdity of artistic fads amid France’s Second Empire, where official Salons glorified grandeur while satirists like Daumier exposed hypocrisy. Lithography’s affordability allowed *Le Charivari* to reach wide audiences, amplifying critiques of class and culture. Today, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Drawings and Prints department (Rogers Fund, 1922), this print reminds us how caricature wields wit as a weapon, inviting visitors to chuckle at art world vanities that persist.