Hunters by the fireside

Hunters by the Fireside belongs to the tradition of the hunting party at rest — a subject that combined the leisure-class pursuits of the chase with the sociable domesticity of the inn or lodge. Daumier had treated hunting subjects in his lithographic work, often with satirical edge: the bourgeois hunter who hunts badly but poses well, the social pretension of a leisure activity associated with aristocratic tradition and adopted by the aspirant middle class. In this oil, however, the subject may carry less satirical weight: hunters warming themselves at a fire after the day's hunt creates an image of simple physical comfort and male sociability that Daumier could treat with warmth as well as irony. The fireside setting creates the characteristic tonal environment of firelight — warm and variable — against which figures are illuminated with the flickering, shadow-rich quality distinctive from natural or artificial light.

The firelight interior creates the tonal challenge of warm, variable light from below and in front, against which figures are illuminated with deep shadows behind them. Daumier handles this with attention to firelight's warmth, movement, and selective illumination of faces and hands.