Honoré Daumier

Honoré-Victorin Daumier (French: [ɔnɔʁe domje]; February 26, 1808 – February 10, 1879) was a French painter, sculptor, and printmaker, whose many works offer commentary on the social and political life in France, from the Revolution of 1830 to the fall of the second Napoleonic Empire in 1870. He earned a living throughout most of his life producing caricatures and cartoons of political figures and satirizing the behavior of his countrymen in newspapers and periodicals, for which he became well known in his lifetime and is still known today. He was a republican democrat who attacked the bourgeoisie, the church, lawyers and the judiciary, politicians, and the monarchy. He was jailed for several months in 1832 after the publication of Gargantua, a particularly offensive and discourteous depiction of King Louis-Philippe.

Although he occasionally exhibited his paintings at the Parisian Salons, his work was largely overlooked and ignored by the French public and most of the critics of the day. Daumier's work, which blurred the boundaries between caricature and fine art, was regarded as an unwelcome advance by the rigid salon system of 19th century France. Yet even in his own day, 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 who produced more than 100 sculptures, 500 paintings, 1,000 drawings, 1,000 wood engravings, and 4,000 lithographs.