Daumier, Honoré

(1808-1879)

   painter, lithographer, caricaturist, sculptor, designer

   Born in Marseille, Honoré Daumier, as a youth, moved to Paris with his family. He studied art at the Académie Suisse and, on his own, frequently visited and sketched at the louvre. He began a career by drawing for advertisements and joined the staff of the comic journal La Caricature, where he earned a reputation for his bold and satirical political prints. one such irreverent caricature published in 1832 portrayed King louis-philippe i as "Gargantua" and resulted in Daumier's imprisonment for six months. He continued, however, to defend his liberal views and ideals, and zealously continued to caricature and satirize both political figures and bourgeois society in a successful journal, le charivari. These satirical lithographs (Le Ventre législative, 1834) were also supplemented by a number of statuettes that he produced on the same subjects. After the revolution of 1848, his political caricatures and satires increased. He also produced a number of prints of scenes of daily life that also have a political and social message (Les Juges; Le Wagon de troisième classe; Les Immigrants; Le Fardeau). Forced by infirmities to retire to a home offered to him by camille corot, Daumier was recognized and praised as the greatest caricaturist of his age by honoré de balzac, charles baudelaire, and many others. His prints and lithographs, as well as his sculptures in plaster and bronze, used as models for his drawings, are highly sought after today by galleries and collectors.