DR3143

The artistically inexperienced couple looks at an image showing little Amor in front of a closed door. The devious god of love displays a painful expression, much to the woman's dislike. She probably does not realize that Amor is suffering from stomach cramps and would like to visit the bathroom, which seems to be occupied. The husband, however, has understood the problem and the "realism" of the picture. He postulates that this is all about the efficacy of a new laxative.

Daumier ridicules the bourgeois public and, at the same time, the bourgeois paintings. It thus makes sense to assume that little Amor with his nervous stomach comes straight out of a picture from the Salon 1859 and is being caricatured here. The opinion from earlier times that it could be about "L’Amour Piqué" by Jules Eugène Lenepveu is doubtful. The subject comes rather from Jean-Louis Hamon (1821 – 1874).

Daumier makes a caricature of Hamon's picture „L´Amour en Visite“, which was reproduced in „L´Illustration - journal universel“ and showed the god of love in front of a shabby cabin. Inside a young woman is expecting him with great joy. Love is no exclusive privilege of the rich, seems to be the message of the artist. Daumier must have understood it perfectly, but as a caricaturist he could not resist the temptation to place little Amor in an absurd situation.

Allusions of this kind are rather atypical for Daumier and would be more suitable for his colleague Amédée de Noé (Cham). Quite often, both artists tackled similar problems and produced similar drawings. Cham was even renowned for his special editions that were dedicated exclusively to the Salon. We cannot be sure whether also in this case a "transfer of ideas" might have taken place.