“Honoré-Victorin Daumier was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second Napoleonic Empire in 1870.” (Wikipedia)
The Uprising is inspired by the revolution of 1848, which saw the overthrow of Louis-Philippe’s monarchy . It was acquired by The Phillips Collection (“America’s First Museum of Modern Art”) in Washington DC in 1925 and founder, Duncan Phillips, called it the greatest picture in his collection. If you’d like to add it your collection, I will not be doing so, the reliable Meisterdrucke sell a high quality reproduction. They describe the picture thus, and don’t skip this because it’s important.
“Honoré Daumier had a grudge against the upper class, which exploited the working class, and thus served him as the main motive for painting. The workers you see in the painting called “L`émeute” call for change, reflecting the reality of the time. People have been treated like machines, but they do not want to put up with it anymore and they want reform. The need for this reform is strongly represented in this painting, in which Daumier tries to promote equality in all social classes. He amplified the message of the image through the fist moving movement of the man standing in the center of the picture. This man is the most detailed figure in the picture, covers the largest part of the picture, and is the only one who wears luminous clothes, allowing the viewer to focus on the man. Daumier wanted to portray the lives of the workers and their struggles truthfully, which he succeeded in doing.” (Meisterdrucke)
Take a good look at the man holding his clenched fist aloft. Well spotted, it is a woman and Daumier’s model was Jeanne Deroin (1805 – 1894), a French socialist and feminist.
“Deroin was a prominent figure during the Revolutions of 1848, campaigning on the rights of women and against the exploitation of children and harsh treatment of convicts. With other Fourierist women … she launched a socialist feminist newspaper and club, the Voix des Femmes. She led calls for women’s suffrage. The group was soon forced to close …
Deroin was imprisoned until June 1851, using this time to campaign further on women’s rights. She wrote to groups including the National Women’s Rights Convention in Massachusetts and the Sheffield Female Political Association, giving advice on tactics. On her release, she returned to teaching, but in 1852, fearing re-arrest, she travelled to London with her two youngest children. She lived in Shepherd’s Bush, where she worked teaching and embroidering.“ (Wikipedia)
She and her daughter, Cecile Desroches, were members of William Morris’s Socialist Federation and both are buried in unmarked graves in Margravine Cemetery. This will be rectified.
“The Friends of Margravine Cemetery have won a £500 grant from LBHF (The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham) towards a fund to pay for a suitable headstone to commemorate her. Bren Simson and Sarah Taylor, with the support of the Friends’ committee and the William Morris Society, prepared the successful application to the LBHF fund created to mark Women’s History Month.” (Friends of Margravine Cemetery, 2024 News)
I bet this is the most sensible and long lasting project and the only good use of tax payers’ money being splurged by the council on WHM. I chose this musical coda to bring gender balance to today’s post.