Details
Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

Les deux Médecins et la Mort

crayon and wash on paper
14 7/8 x 9 3/8in. (38 x 24cm.)
Provenance
Pontremoli
Literature
K. E. Maison, Daumier Drawings, London, 1960, no. 99(illustrated) K. E. Maison, Honoré Daumier: Catalogue Raisonné of the Watercolours and Drawings, London, 1968, vol. II, no. 399 (illustrated pl. 134)
C.R. Marx, L'Univers de Daumier, collection les carnets de dessins, Paris, 1972 (illustrated p. 37)
Exhibited
Paris, Palais de L'Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Daumier, 1901, no. 242 (the dimensions in the catalogue include the frame)
Paris, Galerie Sagot/Le Garrec, Daumier Sculpteur, no. 77
London, The Tate Gallery, Daumier Paintings and Drawings, 1961, no. 160

Lot Essay

According to Maison, Daumier's decision to illustrate the Fables of La Fontaine came about on an evening at Theodore Rousseau's house in Barbizon in 1855. Daumier, Millet, Diaz (amongst others) were each to contribute drawing to the project which itself was never realised. Daumier characteristically chose the fable 'Les Médecins' a rather sinister story of an unlucky patient whose tale is found as subject in popular engravings of the 1830s. The patient find himself torn between the docotrs 'Tant-pis' (prognosis death) and 'Tant-mieux' (prognosis recovery). This sketch is closely related to the watercolour with the same title in the Reinhart Collection, Winterthur (K.E. Maison, Daumier Drawings, no. 100).

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