The Troubadour

Texto del museo

The troubadour, a medieval traveling poet and entertainer, was a popular subject in 19th-century French art. Associated with chivalry and courtly love, the theme reflects a broader, romantic fascination with France's medieval past. Although Daumier was particularly inspired by the troubadour paintings of French Rococo artist Jean-Antoine Watteau of the 1700s, he rendered the subject here in a powerful style of simplified, muscular form that appealed to modern artists of his own time. Daumier was called the “Michelangelo of caricature” and especially renowned for his cartoons and drawings satirizing 19th-century French politics and society.

Descripción original del museo, en inglés. Licencia: CC0