Honore Daumier - Michigan State University

MONDE 11.1
JOURNAL
Five
Honore Daumier
strategy and style
POUR PARIS Et LES DEPARTEYEXTS
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Daumier is a moralist with the suppleness of an artist and the accuracy of
Lavater.
I aIARLra nnt1DIA.ntxe'
DATIMIF.a, unlike Nionnier, never became trapped in a character of his
Own i nvention, nor in narrow limits of style or social viewpoint. The first
i mpression front it review of Daumier's caricatures is one of spectacular
variety, both `linguistic' and pictorial. Just as Daumier included not one
but many physiognornic types within the category `lawyer', though all of
t hem show vanity and inhumanity, so he had not one graphic formula for
outrage, but it range of finely discriminated indications- the surprised and
helpless outrage of t he lawyer's victim, the outrage of offended bourgeois
decornln, or the righteous outrage of the liberated woman asked by her
husband to sew on a trouser button; moral variations conveyed by facial
expression, by bearing and gesture and by context. He specified the tone
with which a gesture is assumed -- the adverbs of his syntax - reluctantly,
eagerly, deliberately.
The effect of Daumier's unprecedented completeness of information
about character and social interaction, as Baudelaire pointed out, is
moral
not at a personal but at a political level. His vignettes of social
encounters, conflicts or collusions are not isolated: cumulatively they tell
us ( as t hey told their contemporary public) about a social fabric, determined by specific political and economic conditions.
What was unique was not Daumier's social insight or political commitment, but the combination of these with his mastery of traditional probl ems of figure drawing and figural composition, and with his enlargement
of the pictorial repertoire of facial and bodily expression. Degas was not
capricious in taking Dautnier its seriously as he did Ingres or Delacroix.
And Balzac reflected that Dautmer `has something of Michelangelo under
his ; kin'. 2
Honors Daumier (T 808 79) was born in Marseilles, a city of exuberant
gestures, His father, a glazier, was an aspiring poet and playwright, whose
ambitions brought t he family to Paris in 1815, and whose poverty led
1 32
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them to move repeatedly within the city. Daumier did not fit clearly into
any defined social class. His family was essentially artisan turned bohemian, in the double sense then current: artistic on the one hand and, on the
other, poor and marginal. Daumier grew up detached, involved, and on
t he alert.
He began work as an errand boy for a legal firm and went on to
apprentice to a lithographer (Charles Ramelet) and a publisher (Z. F. J.
Belliard) who also made lithographic portraits. In 1 828 he attended informally the studio of Boudin, an academic artist. There he met other
young sculptors and painters: August Preault, Philippe-Auguste jeanron,
and Narcissi Diaz de la Pctia who became one of the Barbizon painters.
Alexandre Lenoir, founder of the h1useum of French Monuments, befriended Daumier in his late adolescence, and Daumier became familiar
with his collection of portraits, chosen for their diverse facial expressions.]
In the late i 82os Daumier began t o draw caricatures and portraits charges
of political figures.
Daumier's first caricatures, all political, were published in 1 830 in La
Silhouette and in La Caricature. In that same year of the July Revolution,
Daumier's father went mad.4 Daumier's attacks against the government
became the family's principal means of income.
His work almost immediately began appearing two to three times
weekly in Le Chariaari. Five of the most lastingly effective political caricatures of this period, Rue Transnonain, Gargantua, Lafayette, Liberti de la presse,
and Le Ventre legislatif were his, drawn while he was in his mid-twenties.
Daumier produced nearly 4,000 lithographs and t,ooo wood engravi ngs, setting the standard and scope for political and social satire in the
period 1 830 to 1 8'70, i n both newspapers and illustrated books, including
the novels of Balzac and Eugene Sue, as well as numbers of the Physiologie
of the Maison Aubert and chapters in L,es Frarefais peints par eux-mimes.
Baudelaire wrote of Daumier as:
A man who every morning gives t he Paris population a laugh, who every day
supplies the need of public gaiety, and gives it something to feed on. Honest
burgher, businessman, youngster, fine lady, one and all laugh, and often go
t heir way t he ungrateful creatures! without looking at the signatures
The details of daily situations that Daumier drew were in the service
of his social outlook, Republican, egalitarian and domestic. The strength
of his underlying ideology distinguished his work from that of Gavarni,
Monnier and Constantin Guys.
Daumier's work, like that of Deburau, was often compared to Balzac's
La Comidie humaine, for the range and depth of its portrayal of Parisian
society. Balzac's title claims completeness: as La divina commedia was a
complete spiritual cosmology (in vernacular narrative), so La Comidie
1 34
t o] DAUMIER, ` Rue Transnonain', 1834. 0.135. Working-class families i n Lyons
massacred by the police in retaliation for an incident on t heir street.
humaine was meant to be a complete social description." When contemporaries applied the same title to the oeuvre of Deburau or of Daumier,
completeness is what they meant.
The structure of the comidie humaine necessarily differed according to the
medium. Whereas Deburau created a working-class repertoire by way of
the single figure of Pierrot, an ` everyman', and Balzac developed hundreds
of named individuals through narration, Daumier presented discrete and
instantaneous situations. With few exceptions, the figures are anonymous;
not strongly individualized, but careful variations within clearly i ommunicated types. Daumier grasped the professional structure of the expanding bourgeoisie - from the small shopkeeper and concierge, to the
politician, lawyer and banker - and interwove its distinguishing traits
with those of a moral characterology drawing on the traditions of Lc Brun
and Lavater.
1 35
knows the shape of his nose, the structure of his head, he kno%%s
spirit that gives life to the household, from top to bottom.
t
c ob `The View', Parnian Types, 1 839. 1 ). 595
The caricatural series, many of them planned by Philipon and Daumier
together, are given broad and straightforward categories - Les Beaux
Yours de la vie, Les Baigneurs ( The Public Baths), Les Bas bleus ( The Bluestockings), Alonomanes ( Monomaniacs), Le.s Cens de justice. But Daumier's
true recurrent themes are moral: wishful thinking; role-playing; affectation, sometimes pathetic and sometimes arrogant; wariness of cultural
novelty; ambition, resentment, envy, vanity; powerlessness and indifference to the powerless: complacency and complaisance towards the
status quo; embarrassment and obsequiousness; snobbery, self-righteousness, dissimulation, disingenuousness and hypocrisy. Daumier explores
these themes between the upper and lower limits of the urban bourgeoisie.
To quote from Baudelaire again
No one better t han he has known and l oved ( i n the manner of the artists) the
bourgeois ... this type at once so coin in onltlace and eccentric. Daumier has
lived in close contact with him, has watched him day and night; he has learned
his i ntimate secrets, has made the acquaintance of his wife and children,
1 3fi
tlu , stn t
of
In comparison with Hogarth, perhaps the only social caricaturist ol'
comparable stature and effect, Daumier's freedom from misanthropy or
generalized disgust allows a much wider and more finely discriminated
range of moral observation.
The bourgeoisie, Daumier's principal subject and audience, was not
only typically preoccupied with social ambition; it was a cla,<s c onnn,g t o
terms with its own increased political power. Louis-Philippe's epithet, 'the
bourgeois king', indicated not so much his personal style as his power base.
The caricaturists and the bourgeois are adversaries: new forms of privilege,
corruption, speculation, the betrayal of the Charter, the disappointment
of democratic hopes, were all associated with the alliance of the monarchy
and the bourgeoisie.
The political dimension of Daumier's portrayal of' the bourgeoisie
becomes clear when his work in the Louis-Philippe years is viewed together. Each individual caricature can often be seen as purely social, ;end
many of them are benign: domesticity, simple diversions, natural affections, are shown with sympathy as well as irony. Daumier's political stance
emerges as he repeatedly presents situations of conflict and dissonance:
between people's origins and their circumstances; between traditional
bourgeois values of family stability, caution and frugality, and new opportunities for self-serving and display; between power of'ofice and powerlessness. These political implications gain in strength because his attack,
in its cumulative effect, is not on individual moral turpitude, but on the
social dislocations which engender pomposity and embarrassment as well
as cruelty, dishonesty and corruption.
By symptomatic moments, he mapped the fault-lines of his society, the
lines of shift and strain, Where Monnier presented the static manifestations of the petit-bourgeois, Daumier succeeded in describing the dynamic
of an entire class. This required a development of the caricaturist's
armoury far beyond anything attempted before. If one leafs through
Daumier's earliest caricatures, which are derivative in manner and content from his more experienced contemporaries, one sees how he developed
an increasingly articulate style that could carry moral and political satire
forward.
Daumier's early work was within the framework of physiognomic tradition: there are even some indications that he was interested in current
phrenological theories. In 1832 Philipon commissioned him to make a
series of thirty-six sculpted portraits charges. There had been a successful
precedent in the late t 82os with the figurines of public figures by the
sculptor Jean-Pierre Edouard Dantan - caricatures of Dumas, Hugo,
1 37
I,Iszt and others. , It is not clear what Philipon's intended use of the sculptures was - they were not cast in bronze until w~el1'after Daumier's death.9
One story relates that Daumier made- them st}rreptitiously in the gallery
of the Legislature at a time when illustrators were not admitted. Their
exaggerated bumps and hollows may be simply a sculptor's natural form
of' caricature, or they may consciously respond to the phrenological
fashion,'° These busts preceded the lithographic series, Celebritis de la
caricature, published in 1832 3, in which he used the same politicians as
his subject. The sculptural modelling is carried over to the prints in the
emphasis on the three-dimensional structure of the head and nose - the
use of light and dark planes, rather than line, to define form. Such an
example is D'Arg, the `portrait' of the Count d'Argout, who was the
censor for the July Monarchy, as well as Minister of Commerce, Public
Works, Fine Arts and the Interior."
After 183, when legislation forbade caricature of political figures,
Daumier began to explore the caricature of social types and situations for
too "I he (:oalman', from a late ) fish-ccnturs Cries of the City
t t o DAI MtER, ' The Tailor: fie walks with his shoulders like a coat-hanger and his
elbows (,tit. Ilis clutlles arc of tit(- l atest cut, but often at odds with his boots and hat.
He near]\ always has a very euphonic name such as Watenkermann or Pikprunman.'
French Types, I 8'5, D.261
1 38
11 I DAUMIER, Harle, ` Old Fool',
Deputy of Calais, 'Fossil of the
Centre', Gobin No. 32, 1832
1 1 2 DAUMIER, ' D'Arg . . .'. Censor
for the July Monarchy, and minister
of commerce, public works, fine arts
and the interior. D'Argout's emblems
were the scissors and his large nose
which got into everything. 1 832. 1.48
the first time. In Chapter Three I discussed the first series in this mode,
the Types fran(ais - social types based on classification by professions,
accompanied by legends that were explicit in their reference to the relationship of the types to the regime, whether as victim or as accomplice.
Daumier's emphasis began to shift from the shape of the head, characteristic of the individual portrait bust, to bearing and play of features. The
Types franfais are still in the popular print tradition of the 'Cries of the
City', expressive but static; each stands alone with his attributes or implements, and a minimal indication of city setting, indoor or outdoor. The
style is more graphic, less sculptural, than that of the portraits charges, but
still far from the calligraphic strength of his later work; shading is blended
rather than cross-hatched, and line follows form rather that) creating it.
In 1836 Le Charivari published the Galerie physionomique, also shared
between Daumier and Travis's, which is more directly related to Boilly's
Grimaces (1823-9). Here, single male figures are depicted, static and
tightly delineated, smoking, eating, drinking, bored, surprised, shocked,
frustrated, uncomfortable, dissatisfied; the pleasurable savouring of a
Bordeaux-Lafitte is contrasted with the reaction to a bad-tasting medicine; the heavy features of the oyster-slurper are paired with the finelipped connoisseur of ices. There is no longer any political reference in the
legends that accompany the prints.
1 39
1 1 3, 114
1)AUMIER. ` 011! MN wife's dead.' Phvsiognomic Gallery, 1836. 0.328.
Phvsiognomic Gallery, 1836, n.32q
116 DAUMIER, ` Double Faces'. Gower legend: `Your case didn't have a chance/You
should have told me that before.' Inverted legend: `You must plead, your case k excel l enti
plead! plead!' No. s, 1 838. 0.540
' t)vster Lover',
i 1 .,
I )~1 Mi1R.'Sss
I;slnr„inns, tiss.
1 1 .
I' m a ns~sn '
1 8j8. 1) 1 76
N.-
Im
t m t he contrary.'
SAet(he.s o/
In Double Faces (1838), Daumier showed two profiles on each page;
when the page is held upside-down the profiles read as the same two
characters but in contrasting moods. This is the only instance where
Daumier explicitly distinguished physiognomies (innate expression of
character) from pathognomics (transient expression) by showing the same
face with two expressions.
Daumier's mastery of the caricaturist's traditional vocabularN was
already established in 1 838. In Croquis d'expressions (1838- g ), IOr tht first
ti me in his work, we clearly begin to see physiognomy in action, expression
occasioned by urban encounters and confrontations. When Daumier
presented two or more figures, their given facial features are ill marked
contrast to one another. Nose, chin and brow are articulated. Eyes are
rounded with surprise, compressed with anger or suspicion or drooped in
boredom. Eyebrows have an important place in the expressive repertoire
of the face. Le Brun had already demonstrated that eyebrows could
express all the emotions. Daumier enriched their expressive repertory
further. Usually sharply angled, they can indicate attention, response,
surprise, scepticism, fear or unexpected pleasure. Often the angle doubles,
a circumflex which conveys the moment of their sudden rise. Full lips are
rare; they are encumbrances in the line of profile and reserved li)r some
affluent bourgeois, profligate and pouting. A mouth is more usually a thin
is the most common one in his drawings, allowing maximum exposum
this neglected and revealing area.
The poor and modest worker, spare and lean, is typically shown wil
cheek bone casting its shadows on the hollows, in contrast with the wi
rounded jowl of the bourgeois. Ratapoil, sharp-edged and bony, has
hollow traced by the line of the movements of speech. By contrast, ti,
worker into whose ear he whispers has a set cheek and downward turnip
fold, like the corners of his mouth, closed and sombre.
Series titles in the late t 83os and the early 1 84os remained in the gent
of physiognomies and typology. Croquis d'expressiow depicts bourgec,
pleasures, tribulations and aspirations. The emphasis is on social all
domestic situations. Daumier introduced the theme of bourgeois sel
i mage in scenes of people and their portraits, and painters, a version of tl ,
theme of the disparity between reality and wishful projection Ill.
appeared throughout his work.
1 1 7 DAt-nnt.R, ' Yes, an attempt is being made to destitute this orphan, whom I will not
characterize as a vomng orphan, since he is fifty-seven years old, but an orphan
mmetheless . . . but 1 am confident, gentlemen, i n any case, for the eyes ofjustiee are
conslantly open t o all such culpable manoeuvres!' Men of justire, 1 845. n.1347
single line, bill a line very specific and subtle in its expression - often set
i n bon-chnn or deterinination. Sometimes boredom, like stupor and sleep,
is slutwn by a l apse ofcontrol as in the open flaccid mouths of the sleeping
j udges `presiding' on the bench. There is an occasional yawn and several
yells of rage.
Noses vary: sharp (critics, connoisseurs, and some politicians) ; long,
full and bulbous (gluttonous types); hawk-like (Prudhomme); and the
rarer stub found in workers more often than the bourgeoisie. Foreheads
come in all shapes: receding, predominant, short, evenly curved, indented: the lower classes have shorter foreheads.
However, the play of expression takes precedence over given features
i n the lithographs from the late 1 83os on. The fixed features are constants
around which expressive lines play. It is the plane of the cheek between
eye, ear, mouth and jaw, particularly difficult to activate and articulate,
that predominates in Daumie is expressive heads. The three-quarter view
118 DAUMIEE, ' Clod, what a nose you've made mc!' .fl,r/rhes ul lit~nr,,inn,. 1 838.
x.474
Spectators
1 2o DAUMIPR, Above left, ` Don't you
think my dear, a person must be a
bit touched to have her portrait
done like that?' The Public at the
Salon, 1 852. 13.2298
DAUMIER, Above right, ` Amateur
classicists more and more
convinced that art is lost in France.'
1 21
The Public at the Salon, 1 852. D.2295
1 1 q DA1 M1F H, ' (:ooc1 l onl! . . Dazzling! .
Around the ,ltudio,c, 1 862. 0.:;246
.
Ye gods! . . , superb . . .
1 22 DAUMIER, ` Delighted to find
that he is exhibited, the original seen here - escorts his spouse to the
Salon and positions her in front of
his likeness, to savour the opinions
of the public. Look, say some, it's
Lin, the Chinese envoy. No, say
others, don't you see it's an
illustration in natural history? A
gentleman in possession of a
catalogue corrects them: it's the
portrait of Mr. D. insurance broker.
Well, with a mug like that, he
doesn't need to insure himself.
Nobody's likely to steal him.
Madame, the wife of the sitter, is
extremely gratified.' Current Events,
No. 52, 1841. D.918
it
speaks! .
1 25 DAUMIER, ' For three months ttis
highness always posed like that . . . .
Whatever You Like, 1 848. o. 1 686
1 2,J, 1 24 D.at mtea, Lefi, ' At t he Pot t y St Martin: By God ... that's a good scene ...
t alk about a good seem . . , that's :t good scene.' The Best Day., of Life, 1 846. D.1171
Rt;t;ht, ' Two gentlemen anxious to be recognized as connoisseurs of the highest comedy.'
the Parieiaro in 1 831, 1 882. 1.2227
I n t wo series published between 1839 and 1842, Types parisiens and
Emotion., parisiennes, Daumier turned to more public confrontations. This
preoccupation can perhaps be seen as reflecting the conflict of class
i nterests that eventually led to the Revolution of 1848. Here we have
scenes of personal injustice, confrontation and inconvenience, such as the
poor man in front of a well-stocked shop window, the poor and dishevelled
l ather running into his foppish son who refuses to recognize him, and so
on. Onrvier et bowgc(m 1 848') are two juxtaposed types: the worker looking
after his class interests 'avidly reading a newspaper while walking), the
bourgeois looking after his individual interest (gazing at the food displayed in a shop window).- In the Salon, there are representations of the
classes reacting diflcrently according to their interests: farmers appraise
a painted cow, and painters examine a rival's work. The contrast of roles
and social positions became more acute: between employer and employee,
l awyer and client, bureaucrat and petitioner, l andlord and tenant. These
contrasts are expressed primarily through bearing, the assertive versus the
deferential.
a
t,}fi
1 20
DAt NIIt
I'll get > ott
were i n a c
lztiog
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till
t t7, t ~2ti I,eJ), 11.st stir- k, ` A Dissatisfied Litigant', Alen 0/ Justice, 1 846. n.1362
Rtkht,'II con w„old I),- good ermukh t o take my , case, I can assure you of my lifelong
t;ratimd,~.' I'ltvm<n,mtiet uJ (lie Law C,,tw, 1 8.52. n.2;lwl
Underlying each series were some broad correlations of character with
occupation which existed already, especially in the theatrical tradition,
and which Daintier developed further, both socially and politically. A
variety of i ndividual physiognomies was played against a set of traits
characteristic of the occupation as a whole. Lawyers were linked with the
attributes of arrogance, greed and cunning; bankers with gluttony;
doctors with self satisfaction and ambition; teachers with ineptitude;
l andlords with obduracy: and s(t on.
Datunier depicted lawyers prosecutors, defending counsels and judges
more frequently than other professional groups. They inherit many of
t he attributes of the politicians it) t his phase of social caricature, They are
always arrogant, avaricious and cunning, Robert Macaire appears as a
l awyer twice between 1 836 and 1 838. The first major legal series, Les Gens
de jusliec, was published i n 1 8.1,1 8, followed by Les Anocals el les plaideurs
' Lawyers and Litigants , i n 1848 51, and Phy.sionomies du palais de justice
( Physiognomies of the Law Court! in 1852.
1 29 DAUMIER, ` A trial lawyer visibly i nvpiI cd he ttu• dcepv,( cuncirtitm .
o. i ,l.12
client will pay him well.' Alen of,7to(if,
. t hat his
Daumier's attitude toward lawyers stemmed in part from their politico:
complicity: the number of attorneys allowed to practise in Paris \%oli mited: every nomination had to have the sanction of the government
Disinterestedness under these conditions was rare. Les Gets% de justio t,
replete with exaggerated gestures as keys to insincerity and .self-seeking.
The cloaked advocate is leaving his client behind bars. His raised shoulders, cocked head, stealthy glance and grimacing smile give him a lieavih
disingenuous, surreptitious air. He is contrasted with the clear-contoured
jailer and, more dramatically, with the prisoner, whose head alone is
visible, eyes wide open. Although we do not know the full situation, the
bearing and juxtaposition of the figures indicate clearly that the prisoner
has cause to worry, the lawyer has little to lose. fit another example, a
worker, descending the stairs, turns and points accusingly at the l awN- er
on the landing above. The lawyer, in gentleimtn's pose, turns his head,
but not his body, in the direction of the accuser; the accusation cleal'ly
perturbs him very little. He fingers his scarf, looks down his nose, thin
1 -1q
month pulled tight, jaw set with a sneering smugness, in contrast to the
worker's irate, mobilized face open mouth, open eyes. Their respective
hearings reflect both class and feeling.
Daumier posed his l awyers i n court like actors on the stage, with a
highly stylized delivery and choreography of movements and gestures, but
also with a wealth of'physiognornic ` asides'. Many of the captions refer to
tit(, l awyer's pride in his oratotw: ' So, you've lost your case. At least you've
had the privilege- of hearing my defence.' The gestures his characters use
are pronounced, the accusing finger pointing more emphatically as the
case being presented becomes more questionable. Daumier also used the
(-()trycntictnal accusing gesture of' die outstretched arm and pointed finger
i n his dcpictions of politicians, actors, bluestockings, Macaire and Prudhctrnme. This gesture was also commonly found in contemporary theatrical
illustrations, and i s still standard today in cartoons.
Daumier drew over hundred lithographs of the medical profession:
doctm- s, surgeons, dentists, pharmacists, oculists, homocopaths and hypnotist~. Political itnplicanmts were also characteristic of the medical proli ,ssiott: a large percentage of tlnc Chamber of' Deputies were doctors. Of
1,55o doctors in Paris in 1848,
were decorated with the Legion of
Honour.'? As late as 1867 Datunier allegorically linked medicine and
politics, showing members of the International Congress of Nfedieine
armed with hypodermics in reference to the threat to France by the
armament of Prussia.
Daunlier's doctors arc thinner, less prosperous and less gluttonous than
his l awyers. They are more alert their eyes emphatically open - but less
self-assured: their stance is more t entative, without the aggressive, pompous paunch which is typical of ' his l awyers.
Most doctors, in fact, had meagre i ncomes which they frequently
augmented by selling medicines. Daumier caricatured doctors as purveyors ofquack rernedies and questionable treatments. Again, Macaire is
depicted offering free consultations and charging heavily for the medicine
Ite supplies. In one of'his earliest series, L'Imagination, done in collaboration with Grandville, Daumier presented a physician and his fantasies of
cures. The doctors are a less scheming lot than the lawyers but Daumier
attacked their methods: their use whether in good faith or not) ofquack
remedies, l eeches, cures by pure water, dieting, 'clyster pumps' and
dromedary ointment. His doctors arc solidly bourgeois by origin and conviction: pedantic and i ndiflerent, motivated only by self i nterest.t4
Another form of political power i n the hands of the bourgeoisie was
control ol'land use and habitation: this was an age offeverish housing and
l and speculation. The series Loealaiw.s et proprielabes ( Tenants and Landl ords', published in Le Charirari 1 8.1.7-8 and 1854-6;, shows the power
wielded by t he landlord, and by his unofficial agent, the concierge. Pub-
=s
;1
3110
1
1 50
1 1 1 ,1 all n1\ pa Iienl-' . . .
t gu DAUNntea,'The Physician: Why t he devil i, it
However much I treat them, 1 purge t hem. f drug; t hem . . . I dtni i nIhit'It,"Id it ;1t
(11,11
all !' Rcenrs o/ The Imagination, 113,3,;. u.4o
It was in 1847 that Daumier first submitted a painting to the Salons a
mark of his engagement as a painter. And at about the same time, certain
elements emerged in his caricatures which derived frtnn t he painting o f
earlier centuries, and which increased not only Iris graphic n,a,<tt rN I r ut
his narrative and satirical range. 'I'Ite poses of the i ndividual l i gttrcs
became more varied and dynamic (as if he had been making sets of figure
studies according to the practice of Leonardo, Pollaiuolo or Raphar l and
he showed full mastery of the foreshortening oflimbs and face, \chiclt t hese
poses entail. He seemed to make a special point of varying tltc angle at
which each face in a scene is shown. When he set faces i n parallel it was
deliberate, to convey mindless attention or haughty i ttattentitnt.
Even more impressive is his increasingly dramatic treatlttent ttl tltc
i nteractive stances of figures. Except wltcrc his print i tmal c l1arac t(Ts ; „,
embedded in a crowd, there is never any doubt about wltcrc t he feet of
each are planted; and the line ofinteraction between t wo figures is almost
never parallel with the picture plane (as it was in the earlier series) but
subtly or dramatically oblique. There is pictorial depth
even aerial
perspective - between them, though they may touch or i ntersect. The
t at. 132 Lelt, DA( MIER, ' Speak to the Concierge.... But the problem. i ,. find the
Concierge ... that's the difficulty.' Current Events, 1833. D.2361. Right, `Look, our
nuptial chamher, Adelaide . . . t hese workers don't respect anything. They don't have
t he cult of memory !' Parisian S'ketthes, 1 853. n.242g
lisped a few years after the reinstatement of the censorship laws by
Napoleon III, this was a direct attack on the government, but one that
could pass the censors.'5 Beginning in 185o Daumier exposed the effects
of the demolition and reconstruction of Paris- the displacement of people,
t he i nconvenience, the housing shortage and inflationary rents, the new
speed of traffic and the danger to the pedestrian. Neighbourhoods were
destroyed and landlords of new housing would not allow children or dogs.
Daumier emphasized the destructive effect of such developments - and
t he prosperity of the builders: in January 1 851 he showed Thiers and
Louis-Napoleon as demolition workers.
The years immediately before t he Revolution of 1848 were in some
ways those of Daumier's greatest strength. its He had moved to the Ile St
Louis in the early 1 84os; i n 1846 he had married. He was the unchallenged
l eader among the caricaturists Grandville had died in 1845, Trayies had
stopped publishing in the n-tid 1 84os, Gavarni was turning away from his
OWtt success, NIonnier was writing and acting Prudhomme and was hardly
drawing. Cham the next caricaturist in line had just
begun to publish in
,
Charimri
and
as
yet
was
openly
Damnier's
imitator,
Lc
1 ,1 2
1 33 DA nMIER, ' Paris at 6 p.m. : 1 don't believe t hat even at Limoge, ouc t nt ( ' ] l ot, r, u<
many Limousins.' ( An i nhabitant of Limousin, it l so ;t stonc-ntastm, Parmnn
/r „.
1 834. 1).2585
1 :i 3
series Lo Femrne.t sociali vies (18491 is a set of virtuoso studies in the negative
space between I'tvo figures ~a concern carried on by Degas in many of his
i nterior domestic scenesl. The effect of this sculptural control of spatial
relations is i nformative; it adds, to the bearing and facial expression of the
i ndividual figures, unnristakahle evidence of their feelings towards one
another. As Baudelairc wrote: `All his figures stand firmly and are faithfulls portrayed in rnot unlent . . . it is all the logic of the scholar transplanted i nter a light and fleeting art, which competes with the mobility of
l ily ilscll.'''
Combined with Daunder's acute grasp of pose and gesture was his sense
crh ti ming, a sells(, wine lr was directly linked to It's developing mastery of
draxtiing. Compare Daurnier's theatrical scenes with those appearing in
contemporary theatrical magazines, such as Le Magasin thidtral. One of
tltc artist's classic cltallcnf,Te.s has always been the capture
of
,.
~. the sense of
r nM (111)(1111. Leonardo, f or instance, suggested that the artist should depict
lit(- moment i mrnedi;ttcl\ before t he climax of'a movement, so as to indicate the action l eading III) t o that moment and to imply what will follow.
Darinticr used t his dc\ i s c and added another in the very manner of his
<Ir:t~sing: his rapidl\ dlam11 line and repeated contour indicate the figure
1 3,5 ComFdie-Fran~aisc, '/be hiwrcharnhaull, ( t umvd\
Augicr, drawings by M. Adricn Marie.
Left, Mme Bernard to Ircr son: ` You .shall vase him!
It is my wish; it is your duty'. Right, %IIIc Lctcllicr
t o h1. & Mme Fourchambault: `I withdraw; but i t
i s I who dismiss you!'
b) ill. Emilc
t •jfi DAUmtex,'Insurrcclion against bushauds i s
proclaimed a sacred obligation.' Socialid It nmor,
1 849,D.1918
without fixing it, and this conveys ;t sense crf mm ctnc°nl. We do ncx sec III( .
exact placement ofan arm in a l awyer's dramatic gesture, ett- the set oftlrc
features in a grimace; what we see is how it ccrrncs'nto hcing. TIreIV is all
aspect of bravura performance i n Datrrnicr's drauglrtsnrari,lrip. TIrc
crayon stroke clearly conveys the vigorous and assured nrcrt'ort of' Dattrnier's own hand, and it is this dynamic ' nfIected l i ne that gig cs mctvemcut
to the figures portrayed - the tensely concave back of a woman hurrying
i n tight shoes, or the admonitory arm gesture, cons t raiucd and inflated at
the same time, of Prudhommc i nstructing his small son.
One of' Daumier's most constant devices was to juxtapose (,()n\
and spontaneous bearing and gesture. This contrast '.s c.trricd over tc,
scenes of social confrontation: composure and the sts -I'zal'crrr of Sell' i s n
function of class. The disparity ofsocial position,, the self,_(onsc'ousness crf
hierarchy is conveyed through juxtaposit'cnr crf poses ;t, ssc ha%c seen.
betwvcen l awyers and clients, landlords and tenan(,. ' I'll(- powerful adopt
conventional poses; the powerless do not conceal their apprchensicrn or
dismay. In the series Croquis haricien.s ; 1 87)E' , t here iz a dr:m'ng of t wo
ICet t ogether.
janitors. One explicitly rehearses the pose of' authcrrii\
weight forward, chest protruding, one hand t ucked I nto Iii, vest, t he
other hand behind his back, head perched back, looking down his nose.
The other stands by with mixed f)emnSCmettl and sceptic'Sill.
1 ;i .i IY\t t. urrc. Dr ;t wing. ' licit(1, ,1 1' w o XIc tt.' bfaisoit 1, 1 39
1:j8, 139 DAOM1rR, Le ft, ` Oedipus at the Sphinx', Ancient History, 1 842. D.96]. Right,
`Halt's me wile! Outrageous! While t he barber gives me a shave, she gives me the
slip" Cu»lu,ga( Mauwr%, t 8;g. D.645
1 40, 141 DAUMIER, Le/t, ' Scene in front of a ministcC, I n,nt offi< < 111)(1c]
government.' Whatever You hike, 1849. D.1706. Ri{ht, ` Posed ;1s a 1 ueluber
to
Agricultural Board in his count}'.' 7he Good Bolr,roic, 1 86,,.
1 42 DAUMIER, ` Photography. A new procedure, n,ed t o
Parisian Sketches, 1856. D.28o3
1 ;;; I)AI Mil R, `A queen preparing an especially demanding speech.' Dramatic Sketches,
D.28gi
t ~~f)
emote graicfu1
111%
of
III(
t og DACMIER, ' smiling practice
before meeting the electorate.' Current
Erenzs, 1 869. u.37o6
T he motif of the photography studio lends itself to the depiction of selfconsciousness. In a scene ofcontrasting poses before the camera we witness
some t ypical stylizations of self-image: `civilized man' turns his body
haughtily away from the camera, glancing back in its direction, affecting
bare acknowledgment, but tense and ready for quick adjustments. By
c olltr:rst, ' natural man' sits face forward, stable, with feet parallel, neither
subtle nor seductive. Daumier contrasted the basic structure of their poses
the spiral and the block.
The IFlenlc of posing before a mirror was used by Daumier to show how
a person confronts his c nsn i mage, and to play with the disparity between
t he ( %yo: sometimes this shokAs the effort of simulating decorum, as with
ill( , politician rehearsing his bony and smile; sometimes the face reveals
l.
A
_ aiid
1 Ca ii11lC1lQillly 1lJCl t , aJ Wllll LIIC WUIIIaII
tit(, state AA'1So!oiCu
iCu
l ooking coyly in the mirror.
Hypocrisy was a politically fruitful motif for Daumier. He used two
basic strategies: explicit situations where the true intention is seen in
action, for instance, Louis-Philippe and Robert Macaire embracing while
picking each other's pockets, or the lawyer and defendant, or the con-man
J
C_
W
i 1- _
' 1_
m _11: r11_1l
and his victim. More subtly, he juxtaposed rhetorical gc."turc with a
theatrical `aside', whether of face or bearing, drat reveals tit( , real i ntention. Apres vouspresents two generals before a door marked `Disarmament'.
Each invites the other to be the first to enter: but the cxprcstion c , I litradicts the official meaning - the exaggerated gesture of delCrelu c and
obsequious smiles convey mistrust.
It is not simply a question of traditional exaggeration used in order to
achieve dramatic focus, but of disjunctive exaggeration used to reveal
conflict or dissonance. For instance, a fice attempts :1 noble expression
but all the features are gross. This is true of Louis-Philippe alld most of OW
portraits charges, particularly from Les Rep-esculant.+ r'f:rl-lerrtr"+ i 8_18 cl .
Where there are mixed signals of nobility and i gnobility dec wpit, potbellied, middle-aged actors playing noble parts ill cl:issic-:tl Isla~, , olte
is simply led to regard the nobility as empty.
Daumier used exaggerated theatrical pose to satirize t he artificiality of
an arcane style in a theatre unresponsive to contemporary i calitic.s. He
also used canonical theatrical gesture-- in scenes outside tit, , dicall-c to
signify artifice and affectation. He employed the formal language of
1
1 44, 145 DAUMIER, Left, ` The promenade of an influential critic.' Sketches at the Salw7,
1 865. D.3448. Right, ` Ah, my dear sir, allow me to say that this year you hax -c cxhibiied,
quite simply, a masterpiece.' Sketches at the Salon, 1 865. n.3441
t FSB(rUe'
1 46 Li.. BRUN, Oxen. Le Brun likens them to the
i nhabitants of the parish of Saint-Pierre-auxBocul 9.
,
t oy DAVmase, `Interior ofa bus. Between a
drunk and a butcher.' Parisian Types, 1 839.
1 1 - 5 66
presentation, declamation and reaction to underline pretentious, arrogant
and dishonest characters. And almost always he counterpointed the
standard mannerism with some revealing unselfconscious move or
grimace.
Obviously, however, not all formalized dramatic gestures imply false
appearances. Daumier used certain formal poses and movements as
i ndicators her an i mmediately recognizable, easily read emotion or reaction. One of the most common poses used by men and women of all classes
i ndicates surprise or fright: the figure `taken aback', legs apart, knees bent,
c}test and head thrust forward, arms bent upward at the elbow, hands
open. I . his pose was used by painters, caricaturists, actors and mimes. A
gesture from antiquity through post-Renaissance theatrical prints and
painting, it persists up to contemporary film animation.
Le Brun's schemata recombined and updated - underlay some of
Daumier's characterizations." The pose and expression of esteem and
veneration, shoulders raised, knees bent, body inclined forward, was used
i n an exaggerated f orth by Daumier for obsequious members of the court
1 60
LESCHATS-HUANTS
t .}8 LF: BR( N, O\11,, l it, ett\iou,
pointed uose and I)iu( lied mouth, i< l i k,
sinistel' o\d
t qg DAUNHER,',\Ir Prudhomme, Philaud
It is precisely because I am philanthropic
consider it rny duty not to give cncourag4
mendicancy. Man must supply all his nev
his l abour. Have I e\ er heen ,seen t o nteni
Cnrrenl Events, t 8 iii. 11.2828
in La Cour du Roi Petaud (t 832). Daumier's visitors responding to unfamiliar
painting at the Salon drew on Le Brun's illustration of aversion, combined
with the attributes of surprise. Anger was expressed in the same ways in
the seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries: the forehead is creased, the
nostrils dilated, the corners of the mouth turned down. Daumier added a
caricatural touch - the hair stands on end.
Physiognomic comparisons of animals and humans codified by Le Brun
were also used by Daumier. The owl, which Le Brun associated with
misers, and with deceit and concealment, is clearly present in the
features of Prudhomme refusing to give alms. Daumier's faces of clergy
and government officials are directly compared with Le Brun's `cheats,
tricksters, and predators', their features based on the crow. Clergy were
also depicted by Daumier as a cross between Le Brun's donkey (boorish)
and his ram (stupid). Butchers resemble oxen. And the stone-marten,
noted by Le Brun for its cunning and greed, was used by Daumier to
depict the avaricious.'9 In addition, Daumier added new analogies to his
bestiary -- politicians as ravenous beetles.
Hardly fifty years after the storming of the Bastille, Balzac r cp()rucd i tt
Ferragus that `in Paris everything is a spectacle: no ()titer people i n the
world have had such voracious eves'.
Daumier developed the motif of the spectator kith greater variety and
i ntensity than any other caricaturist. He depicted spectator, over 23o
ti mes (this represented 5 per cent of his graphic work and to per cent of
his paintings). He first introduced the spectacle its a subject in his repertory
of social caricature after the censorship laws of' 1835: nut only theatre
audiences and spectators at the Salon, but people on t he street,. turning
the slightest event into a spectacle. A typology ol'audiences, c,I badauds,
becomes in the censorship years a staple of'the caricaturists' repertoire.
Between 1835 and 1851, Daumier depicted spectators nearly Set times.
The subject became still more frenttent bet::-ce:: 1 852 at1d 1 868, when
Paris was undergoing reconstruction: the upheaval of the city is shown
through the spectators making their way across freshly macadamized
streets or dodging past workers carrying beams. We also see the effect of
the new scale and grandeur of the city: women strolling in wide crinolines
1 51
t ')o
"I'll e Parisians arc i ncreasingly coming to appreciate the advantages of
ntacadainizcd roads. 0errnt
t t?5,I. 1,.2586
f):X( %Itt R.
I n the first major article on Daumier, published in 18'78, Duranty
referred to the repertory of fixed types and traits available to artists and
pointed out that Daumier provided a true encyclopedia of types: `the
scientific or instinctive infallibility [of expression], a certitude in the
expression of movement, an inexhaustible truth in the appearance of his
figures' . Z°
Of all Daumier's t ypes, t he spectator is the most developed and expressive. The more skilled the caricaturist, the more carefully the
i ndividual spectator is scrutinized. The caricaturist's art, like that of the
mime, consists in finding tile salient clues of' character and points of
exaggeration that trigger a quick and accurate reading. The caricatured
spectator, like the mime. indicates what is going on around him by his
gestures and expressions of' reaction. The spectator motif has a double
aspect: it comprises two contrasted but intimately related types. One is
t he isolated and conscious observer, t hefldneur, who is an analogue of the
to:, il a(tivity.
"Xiexandre called Daumier `the spectator par
cxcellcttcc'.) The Niter i s t he undiscriminating (or at any rate, undiscrinlinated I ntetrtber of , all audience or a crowd of'bystanders, the passive
gaper, the badaud. There arc , political implications in underlining citizens'
acceptance of their role as passive observers of'an empire's reconstruction.
1 6 ,2
DAUMIER,
D.2627
` These are no longer women, t hese arc hallooirv.' Currrrrl Ftvnts. 1 855-
15
. 2. 1 .53 DAUMIER, Lell, ' For the seventh ti
me, will you give me my seat? ... if not . ,
` If not, what?' `It not. I'll be obliged
to go and that would displease me very much.'
Diff/(nlt ttomenis ill /,ile, 1 8fi,l,
') . 3 2 74. Right, ` More Venusses this year . . . always
Venu-es! . . . as it there were inly
women who look like that! . . '. Sketches at the Salon ,
1 865. 1.
3440
1 .51 D,si MIVR. ` Physiognomies (rl ill(' spectators at the Porte St
Martin during a
pctii>rtuala t , of Richard 111.' (.'nrre»t
hrerrt~, 1 852. 1.22'74
1 6.1
down broad boulevards -- they are part of the spectacle of Paris parading
`to see and be seen'. This was the period of the great World Fairs, the
Expositions Universelles of 1855 and 1862. Daumier drew several series
on the fairs, concentrating on the responses of the visitors.
In this same period, Daumier attended the theatre frequently.- The
diversity and detail of his theatre audience, and the interactions between
them, reflect his close attention to spectator as spectacle. They are distinguished by the posture and gesture of his figures which vivifies rather
than typifies. In Physionomies de spectateurs de la Porte Saint Martin pendant
une representation de Richard III of 1852, he focused on four variations of
standard bourgeois poses but with distinctive facial expressions.
The individuation of the spectator is expressed in the conflict , between
spectators. In the series Croquis pris au t)Vdtre (186¢), Daumier conveyed a
conflict of will between husband and wife through their gestures: the
woman pointing to the stage with her husband determined to stalk out but with his torso turned, responding to his wife's tug. In another theatre
audience, one man weeps and the other laughs at him. A man challenges
an interloper in his seat.
The bourgeois audience was Daumier's own, demanding in its passivity.
It was in this period, the late i 85os and early 1 86os, that Daumier's
popularity was beginning to wane. Daumier captured the spectators'
confusion and conservatism at the Salon, their boredom and bewilderment at the artifacts of progress at the Exposition Universelle. He depicted
the Salon spectator with less sympathy than his bourgeois at their
domestic pursuits: there is no one in these scenes at the Salon with whom
Daumier identified.- 2 He showed people critical and uncomprehending
before the work of Courbet and Manet, women shocked by realist nudes,
men strutting proudly before their own portraits. Daumier himself had
submitted his paintings to the Salons, and experienced rclectilm and
neglect.
In 1860, after thirty years of constant employment, Daumier was
dropped from Le Charivari. Baudelaire wrote: `Think of Daumier! free,
kicked out of the doors of Charivari i n the midst of the month and with
only a half-month's pay ... and with no other occupation than painti ng.'z3 Philippe Burty described Daumier in 1862 as in a 'cruel state of
privation ... having no longer either lithographs or woodcuts to (to. Tile
_._ anyuliug l~ Vr1 I ull1 ally I ol1Kl'1, tal(((l/1•'QIl Clld IIUt
uevvspapcrs "vvon't hava
renew his contract. Le Monde illustr~ won't accept his series: his wood
engravings, I hear from Champfleury, make subscribers drop off '34
The most likely reason for Daumier's dismissal was a shift in editorial
staff at Le Charivari, Philipon had moved from there to Le journal amwant.
There is no further documentation on why Daumier's readers lost interest,
if they had, or whether this was the real reason for Le C,Ylaiirari's decision.
1 65
Daumier's repetitiveness and lack of verve in some prints of the 1 850s,
and the competition of Cliam's trtorc light-hearted weekly report with its
multiple images, may have contributed to Daumier's eclipse.
I n 1861, Daumier published nit new work. Since 1853, he had spent
his summers in Valmondois, ( went\-three miles from Paris. Friends of his
()wit generation, Romantic landscape painters - Corot, Daubigny and
Rousseau lived and w, cn kcd nearby at Barbizon; and during this period
of unemployment he spcttt his time with oils and watercolours. In 1862,
it(, was commissioned I >v ( It( , weekly illustrated paper Le Boulevard (edited
by the caricaturist and photographer Etienne Carjat). Eleven of the
t welve lithographs for Le Boulevard i n 1862 and 1863 appeared under the
title.Sour rrrirc d'arlislr-s t he last was a portrait charge). They are very diverse
i n theme and treatment itntl\ one, Paysagistesau travail, ` Landscapists at
Work', has painters as its t herrtel but among them are some of his finest
scenes. They were executed tinder less immediate pressure than his daily
work for Le Charivari: t heir composition is more careful, without any loss
of dircctnessorverve , . . \adart'lrvanllapholographiealahauteurdel'art ( Nadar
Elevating Photography tit the Level ofArt), of 1 862, is the best-known and
most spectacular example. Several one post-Haussmann street scene in
particular are tightly packed with figures and complex in composition.
All show gradations oh tone w_Itich tT ,. ;; v be associated with his concentration on painting in this period. There are also cross-overs of motif: the
figure of the child in the painting Femme et enfanl sur un Pont (1845-8),
DFpart pour l Wole (18521, and again in the repeated theme of La Laveuse
( The Laundress) and LeT'wdeau ('i'I w Burden) from 1852 to 1 863, appears
i n the lithograph Le Dimanrhe au jardin des plantes ( Sunday at the Zoo). A
Don Quixote illustration in the Le Boulevard series is almost unchanged
from two oil sketches around 1858. This lithograph also used, as its
dramatic focus, a technique of scraping the greasy crayon off the stone,
which introduced a new tonal element. This use of patches of varied tone
ttr build up forms is a partial r'cvcrsion to the style of his earlier portraits
charters but now it is painterly as well as sculptural.25
Seven of his watercolours of tllc 1 8tios depicted l awyers and courtroom
scenes, t he third-class carriage and other train scenes, street performers,
actors on the stage and print collectors. Daumier's emergence as a genre
pailrter and watercolourist coincided with the first exhibited works of
Jlanet, Monet and Degas.
l „ l,haJir'Qi .' "H,
I n T kGyl .11
. ct.it cl Dauntier a new contract and its readers
were i nformed:
We anntntnce with saiisf,ciitnt t o all our subscribers that our old colleague
Daunticr who f or t hree \ears had giycn up lithography- to dedicate himself
exclusively to painting, liar ciccided t o t ake up the crayon again which he had
w i cldcd with such success. We present t oday a first plate of Daumier, and
1 66
pr-plc u(m
1,55 DAUMIER, ` The New Paris: How pleasant it i s tix- bush
broadened the routes ofcommunication.' drlisls' S'rnrvenirs, 1 1361. D.;;2ta
t hat
ilrrv
from this day on, we will pul)lish, every morning, six or eight lithographs of
t his draftsman who has the talent of making even his caricatures true works
of art.'fi
From 1863 to 186(' Daumier returned to familiar subjects, Croquis
parisiens, Tvpe.s el phvsiononties. Croquis pris au Salon, Les Bons Bourgeois and
an occasional lawyer; and those subjects that the Impressionists were just
beginning to adopt : c afc scenes, theatre audiences and spectators at large.
Some of these lithographs were published in Le journal amusant and the
1'rld 3ownal1)our rite, both publications of the Maison Aubert.17
111 1 866 censorship laws were' lifted in an optimistic gesture on the part
of' Napoleon 111, confident of his public support. International conflict
had taken centre stage. And for all the complaints over the inconvenience
and great expense of the reconstruction of Paris, internal politics were not
under excessive attack. Napoleon had made France into a major military
power, entering into wars with almost every major power in Europe
except England. The military engagement of France with Italy, Russia,
Austria, Prussia and Turkey unsettled the European balance of power.
Daumier depicted the growth of Italy and the threat of Prussia, and
the attempt to ally with unreliable countries. But above all, his concern
was with the threat to peace: he showed Europe personified balanced on
the tip of a bayonette and, two variations, the globe balanced on the tips
of bayonettes, and the figure of Europe trying to balance on a globe.
Issues of'diplotnacy and the threat of'war now became Daumier's prevalent themes. With the shift from national to international politics,
Daumier's caricature became more symbolic. He invented and used
symbolic figures: Peace as an emaciated figure, Prussia as an obese
woman with a military hat, Diplomacy as an old hag in eighteenthcenturv costume. France as Prometheus with a vulture picking at its liver.
These figures, in topical references, were set against evocative but unspecific landscapes of devastation, reminiscent of Goya's Caprichos and
black paintings, known in France through engravings. ( His The Disasters
of War were not published until 1863.) This new simplicity of background,
together with the galvanizing symbolic figures, made Daumier's late
political caricature enduring in its reference.
' The defeat of'Napolcon I II in 1 87o and the moral bankruptcy of France
is rnn%-PVer1 i n !.a Toile (The Curtain) : the audience has called for the
curtain to be pulled down it is marked `Theatre of politics'. On the face
of it, this was the end of a long struggle that Daumier had championed
all his life: Monarchy was dead; but what replaced it was not yet a
republic such as Daumier had fought for. His caricatures at this time are
admonitory: 'If the workers fight among themselves, how shall the house
he built?' It was not until 1 877 that the republic became a viable reality.
1 68
1 56 158 DAUMIER,
Right,
' European Equilibrium',
Current Events,
n.3566
1 857.
' The Universal
Exhibition. The Exhibition:
"Forgive me if I don't offer
you a chair, but you
understand . "; Peace:
"Don't bother, I am
used to not being seated".'
Below left,
Current Events, 1 867. n.3593
Below right, 'If the workers
fight among themselves,
how shall the house be
built?' Current Events, 1 872.
3925
i 5g, i tio L~Jt,
a stonger voice.' 1 869. D.3717. Right, ` Le
t he site where t he Temple of Peace stood.'
DAOn11ea, ' Sllc tlefinitcle has
(:harm ari. Forced ill draw
a i wti vicw
11f
%;ullrw isrrra,, 1 86]. o.;j61o
I n 1 867, t welve years before his death, Daumier introduced a last
emblematic type ( after his Macaire, Ratapoil and Monnier's Prudhomme). He turned from his society and to himself as caricaturist in his
portrayal of the jester. As early its 1 833 Daumier had identified the jester
with La Caricature and Lt, Charirari caricaturists, but now the figure became
l ess (,]fill and more human. Dauntier had earlier presented types with
%" llotn Itc alight have i dctltified, but never with such explicit self-reference.
Don Quixote, Daumier's ftvourite book, was a frequent subject in his
painting, but did not appear in his caricature. Don Quixote who nobly
misapplied moral categories was a recurrent tragic-ironic self-image for
Romantics in a bourgeois society.
Tlre,jcster, on the other hand, is explicitly the caricaturist: he seems to
have Daumier's nose and Don Quixote's beard. With crayon-holder as
iii., ~N-capon ihe confronts, on Daumier's behalf, the politicians, clergy,
disarmament, universal suffrage and reactionaries. From 1867 to 1872,
Daumier drew t he . j ester repeatedly. 21
Daumier's,jester is in the same profession as the street performer, the
clowns and saltimbanques that he drew and painted repeatedly from the
1 85os t o the last years of his life. 2 9 But the jester of the lithographs keeps
III) his proli°ssional high spirits: he actively comments, records, and
1 70
opposes, while the sallimbanque.s of Dauumier's paintings and vaatercolouis
had
are consistently dejected and passive. The street performers
been
subject to the same censorship laws as the caricaturists their skits were
full of political reference. Daumier depicted the street clowns with the
same three-cornered hat, the fool's cap, of the jester. In the most pathetic
i mages they are seen moving from place to place in the city - perhaps an
echo of Daumier's own childhood.
The clown or jester as the image of t he artist outside society appeals
also in the writings of De Mussel, Champflcury and De Banville.t° The
caricaturists who in 1 83o had been influential in turning public opinion
against the monarchists, had realized over the next thirty t o Itsrty \-cans
t he limits of their political i nfluence_ 'I'll(' J ester ;l9 a selft m :1"(' i.•, tl:jtt :;f .
the critic at large who lives by his wits and call criticize only as l ong as he
is entertaining.
We have assigned an emblematic self-image t o tllrce of our principal
caricaturists -Gavarni's Vireloque, Monnier's Prildhonlnic and Daunlier's jester. In polar contrast with Prudhomnic, ;t plumb di.,llo llr 11111 and
a quintessential bourgeois, the jester is outside society, l carl, perccptiye
and a conscious contender. Prudhomme gradually sv-allowed up Moll- ; --r; Daumier's set: irnagc corer •ed
~ at tlic cm! ofhis career, and t heJ'ester
is not his incubus but his comrade-in-arms.
In 1872 Daumier's eyesight began to fail. He retired f- oni Paris to
Valmondois and he drew little after that.
A major exhibition of Daumier's work was organized I 1y his friends in
1 878, sponsored by Hugo, the prominent novelist; Niadar, ill(- photographer; Champffeury, the old champion of Realism; Dauhigny, tilt
Romantic Barbizon landscape painter; and marry others. altogether d.I
1 39 watereolours and drawings, and slime sculpture and lithographs
Oils,
were shown at the Galerie Durand-Rucl, tl w splnuln- of till ' I t rlpi cssic l nist'
exhibitions. The critics enthusiastically praised Daunlicr's \\'()I k, t hough
little was sold. Only a few months later, in February 1 879. I)atlntierdied;
and the local curate of Valmondois refused him church burial because of'
his politics.
The obituaries in the Paris newspapers reflected t he public appreciation of his caricatures. Le Monde illuslrP, 22 Fcln11at'y 1 879, ),%rote
„;; „„„
The collection of his works eonctitowc -W o f tt;_
satires of our contemporary society. He found t he means to still] Ill) i n a 1 ,( . % N
decisive traits the dominant character of ' a physiognomy; h(, brought out the
ineffaceable signs of ridiculousness and vice.... A profound observer, he
presented the men of his time with a particular manner, a firnuiess of expression. His bourgeois were living beings portrayed from life froin t op to
bottom, with their personal manner of dressing, of holding themselves, of
walking and of looking.
The intersection of pictorial codes, revealing each character's nature,
nurture, ambition and immediate feeling constitutes the generative
strength of Daumier'ss art; he developed the language of physiognomy,
bearing and gesture, to a new l evel at which it could express a comidie
humaine adequate to an evolving political and social state.
Daumier's one recorded adage was: `One must be of one's time.' For the
Iinprcssionis(/Real ist painters of the next generation, Daumier's work
was not only a brilliant journalistic record of modern Paris, it was a
liberating example 'which they i ncorporated into their advanced programme: a .style at one witli its subject, and a rich source of naturalistic
themes, improvisatory technique and audacious framing:
Duranty's description in La ,Voui ,elle Peinture (1876) of the task of
modern drawing could have been based on Daumier as much as on
Degas: it is Degas' explicit programme but it describes Daumier's practice." Duranty wrote:
What we need is t}tc particular note of the modern individual, in his clothing,
i n (lie midst of his social habits, at home or in the street.
. . . By means of a back, we want a temperament, an age, a social condition_
to be revealed; t hrough a pair of hands, we should be able to express a
magistrate or a tradesman; 13y a gesture, a whole series of feelings. A physiognomy will tell us that this fellow is certainly an orderly, dry, meticulous man,
whereas that one is carelessness and disorderliness itself. An attitude will tell
us this person is going to a business meeting, whereas that one is returning
froth a l ove tryst. A man opens a door; he enters; that is enough; we see that he has
lost his daughter. Hands that are kept in pockets can be eloquent. The pencil
will be steeped in the marrow of life. We will no longer see mere outlines
measured with a compass, but animated, expressive forms, logically deduced
from one another . . .
The idea, the first idea, 'c-as to take away the partition separating the studio
from everyday life ...
It is the study of how morals reflect on physiognomies and on costume. The
observation of a man's i ntimacy with his dwelling, of the special characteristics which his profession imposes on him, the gestures which it induces him
t o make, points of view from which lie shows himself most clearly.3'
Cltampfleury dedicated Le.s E.rcentrlques to Daumier in 1 852 with these
words:
You must often have smiled at the difficulty felt by the novelist who tries to
sketch a physiognomy in words you who in a few strokes of the pencil give
eternal life to those beings whom future historians will consult with delight in
order to learn what the bourgeois exterior of our century looked like.33
1 72
1 61 DAUMIEt2, `To think that with the stone from all these pedestals one could build a
good dozen primary schools,' 1867. o.g6oo