Drawing, 'Deux Avocats' by Honoré Daumier, French School, 19th century

A figure, dressed as a barrister on the left, is reading a paper and is wearing glasses and traditional robe and hat. The barrister on the right is facing the other, holding books. There are two faint sketches of figures in the background, possibly the audience of the court.

Bequeathed by Constantine Alexander Ionides

C.A. Ionides, by whom bequeathed, 1900

This study is typical of Daumier's work which often focuses on everyday life scenes in law courts. Daumier executed many drawings and lithographs depicting lawyers walking along with each other, in conversation with each other or working the courtrooms. In this archetypal image of two lawyers, he used a vigorous and nervous line, especially in the depiction of the lawyer on the right, which is similar to another of his works The Uprising (see Fuchs, E., Der Maler Daumier – Supplement, 1930, p. 315, illus.).

The pose of the lawyer on the left, reading, is similar to that of the lawyer in Advocat Reading (See Fuchs, E., Der Maler Daumier, 1927, p. 195, illus.), both wearing their lawyer’s garb and hats, looking downwards at their papers reading and in deep thought. There are outlines of other people in the background, possibly the public in the courtroom or other passers by. Daumier typically grouped these figures of lawyers by two as we can see in similar drawings in the collection (see for instance CAI.120 and CAI.127).

Daumier often drew in profile to great affect. This provided him the opportunity to exaggerate facial features, which lent themselves well to portraying the unscrupulous nature, arrogance and pomposity of the legal system. This can be seen in his Les Gens de Justice series of lawyers at work, typifying the generic legal types he came to develop in his oeuvre. (See Delteil, Honoré Daumier Le Peintre Graveur Illustré, 1969, vol. XXIII, pls. 1340-1367). The whole image is, however, most similar in composition and subject matter to En Delicatesse (See Delteil, Honoré Daumier Le Peintre Graveur Illustré, 1969, vol. XXVIII, pl. 3409, illus.).

Honoré Daumier was well versed in the workings of the law courts, having been tried in 1831 for the offence of caricaturing King Louis-Philippe, for which he received six months in prison. After his release Daumier frequently visited the courts, where members of the legal profession provided a wealth of subjects for caricature. This vibrant, rapid sketch of two barristers conspiring expresses the pomposity and corruption which Daumier regarded as endemic to the legal profession. When visiting the courts, he first drew specific people and events, but later developed a powerful repertory of characteristic legal 'types', as seen here.

CAI.124