“In Paris everything is a spectacle: no other people in the world have had such voracious eyes.”
—Honoré de Balzac, French novelist
Prints displayed in a street-side print shop attract the attention of passersby. Some peer with earnest intensity, others gaze with mild curiosity. A young boy gingerly leafs through a giant portfolio as another child strolls by, barely registering interest. In this small painting, Honoré Daumier examines the act of looking through the varying degrees of those represented, the animating gaze of the artist, who was also a keen observer of Parisian street life, and our own attentive scrutiny.
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