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Honoré Daumier

Painter, Sculptor, Printmaker

Honoré-Victorin Daumier (1808-1879) was a French activist and humorist whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870. He was a republican democrat (working class liberal), who satirized and lampooned the monarchy, aristocracy, clergy, politicians, the judiciary, lawyers, police, detectives, the wealthy, the military, the bourgeoisie, as well as his countrymen and human nature in general.

Daumier was well-known for his caricatures and cartoons that appeared in newspapers and periodicals such as La Caricature and Le Charivari, but he was also a serious painter who exhibited at the Parisian Salon, his paintings were largely overlooked and ignored by the French public and critics of the day. Yet Daumier's fellow painters, as well as the poet and art critic Charles Baudelaire, noticed and greatly admired his work. Later generations would recognize Daumier as one of the great French artists of the 19th century, profoundly influencing a younger generation of impressionist and postimpressionist painters. Daumier was a tireless and prolific artist and produced more than 100 sculptures, 500 paintings, 1,000 drawings, 1,000 wood engravings, and 4,000 lithographs.

Lithography was a new form of printmaking in the early 19th century. It was a fast and cheap method of mass-producing prints compared to the traditional practices of engraving and etching. Daumier learned lithography and found work producing (often anonymously), miscellaneous odd-job illustrations, advertisements, street scenes, portraits, and caricatures in the mid to late 1820s, honing his craft. Daumier soon became a master of lithography, and the process made his work accessible to everyone in Paris.

Daumier's first masterpiece was called Gargantua, a lithograph, published by La Caricature on the 16th of December in 1831 (shown at the top of the page). This lithograph is what made Daumier truly famous. In it, King Louis-Philippe is seated on his "throne" (actually a toilet), drawn as a monster, and exploited people feed him all of their belongings, which he shits out as government paperwork. The reaction of the King to this lithograph was not positive. Immediately after its publication, the government tried to seize all prints being circulated on the market, then destroyed its lithographic stone; That was followed by his arrest and charges of libel: He was brought to court in February 1832 and charged with "inciting to hatred and contempt of the government and insulting the king." However, his sentence was suspended at that time and Daumier returned to work where he continued to produce provocative and antagonistic lithographs for the papers.

The publication of Gargantua brought Daumier considerable notoriety, and great popularity among some segments of the public, but little financial gain. With no other training than art, Daumier's only choice to make money was to create more lithographs... which were popular with everybody except the King. Daumier was arrested again at his parents apartment in August 1832 and placed in the prison of Sainte-Pélagie to serve his six months.

Daumier remained defiant in prison and wrote a number of letters indicating that he was producing lots of drawings "just to annoy the government." He created another masterwork called Un Héros de Juillet, Mai 1836 ("A Hero of July, May 1831"), published in December of 1832 in La Caricature. In the print, a veteran wears a coat made out of pawn receipts and stands on a bridge facing France's Chamber of Deputies. With one foot disabled from battle, his usless walking stick points towards the chamber, while he has tied a paving stone to his neck with a rope, preparing to jump.

After his release from prison on February 14, 1833, Daumier moved out of his parents' home into an artist phalanstery on Rue Saint Denis. He resumed work at La Caricature and continued to publish controversial lithographs like Rue Trensnonain, Freedom of the Press, and Past, Present, Future. In 1834 La Caricature finally ceased publication after relentless prosecutions and fines from the monarchy. However, Daumier continued to work at a similar journal called Le Charivari, anyway, so it had little effect on his popularity.

In response to Daumier's lithographs (and an assassination attempt or two), France instituted extremely oppressive censorship laws in 1835. This effectively made political caricatures illegal. Daumier, with some relief, shifted the focus of his caricature from politics to more commentaries on general French culture. Daumier began painting in the mid 1830's and by the end of the decade was very dedicated to producing more oils and watercolors. He had more interest in painting than in caricature and lithography, but he found it necessary to keep producing cartoons in order to have income.

Daumier began a relationship in 1839 with a seventeen-year-old seamstress named Alexandrine Dassy, who he affectionately called "Didine." On February 2, 1846, she gave birth to Daumier's illegitimate son, who was given the very legitimate name of Honoré Daumier, Jr. The couple were then married on April 16, 1846, but their son died soon after. They moved to 9 Quai d'Anjou, on the Ile Saint-Louis in 1846 where they lived until 1863.

Although Daumier had been painting for a number of years, it was in the late 1840s that he became increasingly dedicated to that particular medium. By the mid to late 1850s Daumier had reached new levels of artistic maturity and increasingly wished to devote himself to painting. After 30 years of steadfast production, he was growing tired and weary of the grind of producing up to eight cartoons a week, yet he was dependent on the income. His caricatures were aalso declining in popularity with the public, and in 1860 Le Charivari actually dropped him from their staff and ceased to publish his cartoons! While the next few years were a time of financial hardship and struggle, they were also years with free time to devote to painting, and a time of great productivity and artistic growth. Daumier's paintings are now well-regarded, but at the time of their creation they were largely unappreciated. His paintings did not start increasing in value until after his death. Daumier painted about 500 paintings in oil and watercolor on a variety of subjects including many portraying Don Quixote and Sancho Panza. He started experiencing failing eyesight around 1865 or 1866 which progressed with time, although he was still producing drawings and poster designs as late as 1872. He continued to exhibit at the Paris Salons for several years, although the canvases he submitted were often over ten years old.

However it was at this point in time that the government of France actually began to appreciate one of the country's greatest artists. The Second French Empire intended to award Daumier the Legion of Honor; however, he discreetly declined, feeling it was inconsistent with his political ideals and oeuvre. The French Third Republic again offered Daumier the Legion of Honor and again he declined, although he was later granted a pension of 200 francs a month (2,400 annually) in 1877, which was increased to 400 a month (4,800 annually) in 1878. A circle of his friends and admirers arranged a large exhibition of his paintings at the Durand-Ruel Gallery in Paris.This was the first time the full scope and range of Daumier's work was exhibited, and it was very well received by both the public and critics, and became a decisive turning point in the perception of Daumier as an important painter. He died several months later, in February of 1879.

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The Cartoons and Caricatures of Honoré Daumier (YouTube)

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