The prints of Honore Daumier have long been admired and sought after by art lovers. His lithographs of 19th Century French political and social life are wonderful examples of great draftsmanship, and they're funny, fascinating and instructive as well. Print collectors are often surprised to learn that many of Daumier's 4000 or so original lithographs can be bought at relatively modest prices, perhaps a few hundred dollars or less, although some of the more sought-after images can cost thousands.  But as in all areas of fine print collecting, it's essential - and fun - to learn about the prints before investing in them. Now a new facility is available to help Daumier lovers become Daumier connoisseurs: The Daumier Register

The Daumier Register is the result of years of study and scholarship undertaken by Lilian and Dieter Noack. The Noacks have created a massive catalogue of the Daumier lithographs - called the Daumier Register - which is available free, online (just hit Daumier Register on your search engine).

How the Daumier Register Works

To demonstrate how the Register can help you find out about a particular Daumier print, let's take just one example. Here's the print:

There are many ways to find it in the Register. Perhaps the easiest is simply to search for the series, which in this case is Les Saltimbanques, shown at the top of the lithograph. Under this series the Register shows us the picture of three lithographs (there were three in this series), and we can immediately turn to the picture of our print.  We see that the Daumier Register (DR) number for this print is 620. Now let's look at some of the categories of information we're given for this (and every) print.

Technical Details

The technical details are straigtforward - we see the size of the image (8.9 x 10.31 inches), and that it's a lithograph. If the size of the print you're considering, or have, is different from this size, your print may not be an original.

Publication Details

Here we see that the print was published in the journal Caricature (and the dates are shown), and also in the journal Charivari. In the main body of the website these journals are described at length.

State Details:

This section describes the various states (changes made in the lithographic stone where at least one impression was printed) there are for this print. Before the DR it was thought that there were 4 states, but the Noacks discovered a fifth (where a new address was added in the letters section). The first state is described as very rare - it's before any letters. Our impression pictured corresponds to the DR state two (of 5); it has letters below the image, but it's before an address at the lower right. In this state it was published in Charivari, and also some sur blanc impressions were made (with no newsprint on the reverse); ours is a sur blanc impression. As explained in the DR website, the sur blanc impressions were made in limited numbers, for collectors.

Collections Details

This shows the collections which the Noacks have reviewed which have this print. In this case about two dozen institutions, and some private collectors are named! In each case the state of the print, the type of paper used, and in some cases even the provenance of each impression is given. For example, two impressions were found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, one in the second state on wove paper (probably resembling ours), and another in the third state on newsprint (with newpaper print on the back of the print); and the provenance of each is the Babcock collection.

Background

Here's where the DR is astonishing - it gives background details on each print, enabling the viewer to appreciate what's going on. In this case each of the characters in the puppet show is identified - the writer Victor Hugo, the musician Berlioz, and three others; and their relationship to Daumier is discussed (e.g., Daumier had a strained relationship with Hugo, etc.). Even the hats of the characters are named and discussed, so the viewer can get a better sense of what Daumier was portraying.

Translation

Here the DR does us another great favor, by translating the text at the bottom of the lithograph. This is not as easy as it appears, for 19th Century French had lots of idioms and special references unfamiliar to us today. In the case of our print, the translation is: Here you see the great celebrities of literary, musical, and artistic France. They are 36 feet tall - measured below sea level.

Conclusion

I've mentioned the importance of the catalogue raisonne in some of my other guides on fine print collecting - a good catalogue can be an extraordinary aid in assessing the authenticity, state, rarity, and aesthetic and social context of a print. In the case of Daumier, we now have in the Daumier Register an invaluable tool to help the collector understand Daumier lithographs. And in addition to the information given on each print, the Register also references the extensive Daumier website which explains in depth various aspects of Daumier's life, the political and social context of France, how Daumier prints were made, published and marketed, and how to make sure a Daumier lithograph is indeed authentic.  The DR and its complementary website are a great step forward in Daumier scholarship, and all Daumier enthusiasts - including prospective Daumier collectors - can thank the Noacks for their splendid efforts.

                                                                                                      Harris Schrank