'Les Baigneurs'.
Honoré Daumier was a 19th-century French painter, wood engraver and sculptor, who is nevertheless most famous as a political cartoonist and caricaturist. He worked in an elegant, virtuose style and experimented with different techniques. His art is a satirical time capsule of 19th-century daily life and politics. Several of his cartoons caused scandals at the time, including the infamous 'Les Poires' (1831) and 'Gargantua' (1831), which ridiculed French king Louis Philippe so mercilessly that Daumier was fined and jailed for several months. Honoré Daumier remains one of the most influential graphic artists of all time and one of the all-time champions of free speech. He is also a significant figure in comic history. Daumier drew people in an expressive, comical way, sometimes making use of sequential images. Some of his drawings can be considered early examples of pantomime comics, while others are text comics, with text underneath the images. Among Daumier's prototypical comics we find 'Les Poires' (1831), 'Les Mésaventures de Mr. Gogo' (1838), 'La Journée du Célibataire' (1839) and 'Les Baigneurs' (1847).
'Masques de 1851'.
Early life
Honoré Daumier was born in 1808 in Marseille as the son of a glazier who drew in his spare time. Daumier admired caricaturist Nicolas Toussaint Charlet, but also studied painters such as Peter-Paul Rubens, Rembrandt Van Rijn, Titian, Frans Hals, Francisco de Goya and Eugène Délacroix. At the age of eight he moved to Paris, where he studied at the Académie Suisse. He educated himself in the new medium of lithography and created more than 4.000 pictures in this style.
'Les Poires', 1831.
Controversy
In 1829 Daumier met Charles Philipon, editor of the magazine La Silhouette, where he published his first drawings. A year later Philipon founded the satirical magazine La Caricature, in which cartoonists such as J.J. Grandville, Jules David, Victor Adam and Daumier found a place to publish their work. Daumier became well known for his sarcastic portrayals of French society, satirizing politicians, clergymen, judges, the bourgeoisie and even king Louis Philippe. In 1831 he drew a caricature of the king, depicting him as a pear. This led to an official complaint from the French government. Daumier defended himself by drawing another cartoon, 'Les Poires' (1831), in which he "proved" the monarch's resemblance to a pear by portraying it in a gradual transformation. Daumier's cartoon is also interesting for comic historians, since he uses a four-panel sequence to achieve his effect. At the time, republican activists quickly adapted the image in their struggle to depose the tyrant. The sequence was drawn on many walls, making the monarch the laughing stock of the country. 'Les Poires' has become one of the most iconic political cartoons of all time and a classic text book example of "lèse-majesté" ("offending His Majesty").
The idea of transforming a politician's face into something else has been copied and homaged by numerous cartoonists since, among them Russian artist Dmitry Moor, French caricaturist Jean-Claude Morchoisne and Mad Magazine artist Hermann Meija. In 1946 Argentine cartoonist Juan Colombres caricatured president Juan Perón as a pear, since his last name sounds similar. Another direct shout-out happened in February 1982, when German cartoonist Hans Traxler caricatured chancellor Helmut Kohl as a pear on the cover of the satirical magazine Titanic. It even gave Kohl his nickname "the Pear".
'Gargantua', 1831.
Another cartoon, 'Gargantua' (1831), depicted the obese monarch as the giant Gargantua from François Rabelais' novel 'Gargantua' (1534). The looming king is seen sitting on his throne, while his loyal subjects feed him tax money. On closer inspection the throne is revealed to be a toilet, from which he shits out political nominations and retributions which keep the upper class obedient. The caricature achieved its goal brilliantly. King Louis Philippe was so offended by this simple drawing that Daumier was once again sued. On 23 February 1832 he was sentenced to six months in jail, which he spent between 31 August 1832 and February 1833. La Caricature was forced to shut down, but Philipon founded a new magazine, Le Charivari, where many of his former illustrators, including Daumier, found a new haven. To avoid further trouble they refrained from mocking the king.
Still, in 1834 Daumier had yet another run-in with the law. His lithograph 'Massacre de la Rue Transnonain, 15 April 1834' referred to street riots in Paris earlier that month when police officers bloodily surpressed the demonstration. Many hunted the activists down, even going so far to break in their houses and murder them. Daumier's work depicts several men killed in their own bedroom. They all still wear their evening gowns. Even a little baby wasn't spared and is seen lying underneath the corpse central to the image. 'Massacre de la Rue Transnonain, 15 April 1834' is a powerful work and attracted a lot of criticial attention. The police immediately tried to confiscate it and tracked down as many prints they could find, even taking the original lithographic stone on which the image was drawn. Only one year later press freedom in France was abolished and La Caricature banned.
'La Defenseur' (1860).
Socially conscious work
After 1834, Daumier's drawings managed to avoid further legal troubles. Still, he remained a controversial artist. Several of his paintings, lithographs and drawings ridiculed the upper classes. His series 'Les Gens de Justice' critiqued the corrupt legal system. In 39 albums, the drawings lampoon pompous judges and silver-tongued lawyers. These classic drawings are still popular today and decorate many justice halls. Even actual lawyers and judges hang them on their walls. Daumier's sympathies were always with the common man. One of his most famous drawings is 'Le Wagon de Troisième Classe' (1864), depicting a group of poor people travelling in a third class train wagon. It made him more popular with the masses and fellow artists than the elite. Critics dismissed him as an ordinary caricaturist and failed to see the artistic value of his paintings and sculptures. Daumier didn't care much about this criticism, nor aspired recognition. In 1870 he, for instance, refused to be honored in the Légion d'Honneur.
Book illustrations
Daumier illustrated many novels by Honoré De Balzac. He collaborated with J.J. Grandville and Henry Le Monnier on the illustration of Balzac's 'La Chronique de Paris' (1836).
'Le Wagon de Troisième Classe' (1864).
Prototypical comics
Apart from 'Les Poires' (1831), Daumier made other prototypical comics. At the instigation of Charles Philipon, chief editor of Le Charivari, Daumier created the text comic, 'Les Mésaventures de Mr. Gogo', which appeared in the December 1838 issue of the short-lived magazine La Caricature Provisoire, also owned by Philipon. Between June and September 1839 Daumier created 'La Journée du Célibataire' (1839) for Le Charivari, a humorous text comic about the trials and tribulations of a bachelor. Another text comic by Daumier, 'Les Baigneurs' (1847), mocks swimmers in bath houses and at beaches. The humorous depictions of clumsy and awkward people trying to stay afloat and avoid looking ridiculous in their swimming costumes are accompanied by dialogue underneath the images.
'La Journée du Célibataire' (1839)
Final years and death
After 1865 Daumier fell into financial difficulties. He left Paris to live in Valmondois, where painter and admirer Camille Corot helped him out. During the 1870s he lost his eyesight and by 1873 he was practically blind. In 1878, a year before he died, an exhibition brought him under new attention and the appreciation he so justly deserved. He nevertheless still died in poverty a year later, leaving an enormous legacy behind of more than 4.000 lithographs.
Legacy and influence
Honoré Daumier was a huge influence on generations of graphic artists, including Cham, Félicien Rops, Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Feng Zikai, David Levine, Bob van den Born, Alphonse Lévy, Jean-Pierre Girerd, Pierre Dupras, Jan Kruis, David Low, Gerald Scarfe, Jean-Louis Lejeune, Pat Oliphant, Jack Davis, Tomi Ungerer, René Follet, Roger Law, Karl Meersman, Quentin Blake, Marc Sleen, Rick Tulka, Emil Ferris and Robert Crumb. Lucas Nine drew his graphic novel 'Delicatessen - Tout est Bon' (2022), which is set in 19th-century France, in a style reminiscent of Daumier. Famous novelist Charles Baudelaire named Daumier "one of the most important men, not only of caricature, but also of modern art." His colleague Henry James said: "It attained a certain simplification of the attitude or gesture which has an almost symbolic intensity. His persons represent only one thing, but they insist tremendously on that, and their expression of it abides with us."
Daumier's depiction of photographer and fellow caricaturist Nadar.