You seem to enjoy doing my work. In exchange I could offer doing your job: I will go for a ride in your coach!, from 'Parisians in the countryside,' published in Le Charivari, March 28, 1865

Art Historical Context

This witty lithograph by Honoré Daumier captures the social satire that made him one of the most influential French artists of the th century. Published in the popular magazine *Le Charivari* on March 28, 1865, the print belongs to his series “Parisians in the Countryside,” which gently mocked city dwellers attempting to enjoy rural life. The dialogue in the title—a worker addressing a bourgeois visitor—highlights the humorous role reversal: the city gentleman seems to relish manual labor, while the laborer jokingly offers to take his coach for a leisurely ride instead. Daumier’s sharp observation of class and leisure reflects the rapid social changes of Second Empire France, when expanding railroads allowed Parisians to escape briefly to the countryside. His expressive line work and exaggerated features, hallmarks of his caricatural style, bring the exchange to life with warmth and irony rather than cruelty. Created as a lithograph on newsprint, the medium allowed Daumier’s commentary to reach a wide audience quickly and affordably. Today, this impression in the Metropolitan Museum’s collection preserves a vivid snapshot of 19th-century French society and the democratic power of printmaking.