The Human Comedy: Chronicles of 19th-Century France

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Le Gamin de Paris

Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879) Le Gamin de Paris aux Tuileries (The Paris Street Urchin at the Tuileries), 1848 Lithograph General Acquisitions Fund, 1944.189.17

This print evokes the storming of the Tuileries Palace by the people of Paris—represented by the gamin de Paris or Parisian street urchin—on the night of Louis-Philippe’s ab-dication. The royal throne the boy finds so comfortable was later carried through the streets of Paris and burned, leg-end says, but only after Parisians took turns trying it out. The message is clear: under a Republic, even a child of the people has the right to sit on the symbolic seat of power.

Le Gamin de Paris aux Tuileries. —Cristi !... comme on s'en-fonce là dedans.

The Paris Street Urchin at the Tuileries. —Golly!... how com-fortable I am here.