Ah! Tu veux te frotter à la presse!! (Ah! You want to mess with the press!!), 1833.
Lithograph on soft wove paper ("sur blanc"), 22,9 cm x 20,6 cm (stone). Signed "Daumier" in the stone. Plate 319 from issue no. 152 of the magazine "La Caricature". Typographically inscribed at the lower margin: "L.de Becquet, rue Furstemberg N°6." and "chez Aubert, galerie véro dodat.". Reference: Delteil 71; Daumier Register 71. Provenance: Ex collection Pieter Willem van Doorne (Lugt 4731) with the stamp vD verso.
"In the present depiction King Louis-Philippe is even put under pressure by the conservative press. Apparently, also the right-wing newspaper "Le National" had to fear press censorship. There was a danger of a similarly vehement reaction that had led to the revolution under Charles X in 1830. In any case, the government was prepared to silence the liberal republican press by law. The man at the printing press is probably not the printer but one of the newsboys who dominated the street scene at the time. They touted the headlines of their newspapers, which usually called for rebellion. The police arrested the newsboys, who allowed themselves to be arrested under protest, knowing that they would be acquitted by the court. The constant campaign against the king, the unveiled calls for murder, the poverty of large sections of the population and the hard road to democracy created a strange and unstable climate." (Quoted from: https://www.daumier-register.org/hintergrundlist_popup.php?key_m=71)
