In Tangiers. “- Sublime Majesty... the Spanish are coming... in order to frighten them off I took the liberty to fully open your umbrella as a sign of your greatness! - Leave me alone with my umbrella, Belboul.... I would rather like to have an umbrella protecting me from their bullets,” plate 115 from Actualités

Honoré-Victorin Daumier

November 14, 1859

Attribution: Honoré Victorin Daumier French, 1808-1879
Medium: Lithograph in black on white wove paper
Physical dimensions: Image: 21.1 × 26.6 cm (8 5/16 × 10 1/2 in.); Sheet: 26.3 × 35.2 cm (10 3/8 × 13 7/8 in.)
Credit line: William McCallin McKee Memorial Endowment

CATALOGUE RECORD

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Source rights statement: Public domain

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From the museum

In its original French, the caption of this caricature is a play on words that utilizes the similarity in sound between “parasol” and the phrase “pare-à-balle,” meaning “to ward off bullets.” Daumier never travelled outside of Europe, and he made little effort to depict the Moroccan sultan or his servants realistically. The sultan’s outfit is therefore inspired by sources such as Orientalist paintings by his friend Eugène Delacroix and descriptions of caliphs from the popular Arabian Nights .

Description: Art Institute of Chicago · CC BY 4.0