The Studio

The Studio, dated around 1870 and held at the J. Paul Getty Museum, depicts an artist's working space — the private professional interior where paintings are made. Daumier had an insider's understanding of studio life from his own practice and from his many years moving through Parisian artistic circles, and his treatment of the studio subject focuses on the physical environment of artistic work rather than on a specific artist's identity or creative moment. The studio is shown as a working space: canvases, equipment, the specific light quality of an artist's north window, perhaps figures in various states of work or observation. The Getty Museum's collection of European paintings includes a significant group of French nineteenth-century works, and this Daumier studio subject fits within its broader holdings of French Realism. Daumier's studio paintings share the observational quality of his social subjects — the studio is one more professional environment to be documented with honest attention.

The studio interior gives Daumier a specific light problem — the directional, cool light of a painter's studio — which he renders through strong lateral shadows and warm highlights on surfaces touched by the light source.