Serment Renouvelé...des Suisses, from Locataires et Propriétaires, published in Le Charivari, September 29, 1856

Art Historical Context

This 1856 lithograph by Honoré Daumier, published in the French satirical journal *Le Charivari*, belongs to the series *Locataires et Propriétaires* (Tenants and Landlords). Created with the printer Destouches and publisher Aaron Martinet, the work exemplifies Daumier’s mastery of the medium during the height of his career. Lithography allowed him to produce sharp, expressive lines that captured the gestures and expressions of his subjects with remarkable economy, making it ideal for reaching a broad newspaper audience. The title *Serment Renouvelé...des Suisses* hints at a humorous commentary on social or political oaths, rendered through the exaggerated figures typical of Daumier’s satire. As part of a larger exploration of tensions between property owners and renters in mid-nineteenth-century Paris, the print reflects the artist’s keen observation of everyday power dynamics and class relations under the Second Empire. Today housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Drawings and Prints, this second-state impression preserves Daumier’s incisive wit while offering modern viewers a vivid glimpse into the social concerns of 1850s France.