Depuis six mois monsieur chante faux! Madame joue pareillement et... les voisins donnent congé !

Abstract

A man is singing while a woman is playing the piano. The piano transmuted already during the period of Louis Philippe from a purely decorative musical instrument, merely offering individual musical enjoyment, to a musical entertainment center of the newly established bourgeoisie. Private ‘Salons’ became competing institutions in Parisian society, showing the works of and played by Chopin, Liszt, Henri Herz etc. The symbiosis between painting and music culminated in new evolutionary height of both art forms, catapulting them towards new boundaries. Exaggeration, physical distortion are typical signs of real caricatures and have been used by Daumier throughout this series. The grotesque is underlined by over-size heads and small bodies, a technique, which was later copied and developed further by André Gill.