Daumier produced over paintings, lithographs , wood engravings, drawings and sculptures. A prolific draughtsman, he was perhaps best known for his caricatures of political figures and satires on the behavior of his countrymen, although posthumously the value of his painting has also been recognized.
His father Jean-Baptiste was a glazier whose literary aspirations led him to move to Paris in , seeking to be published as a poet. In the young Daumier and his mother followed Jean-Baptiste to Paris.
Daumier showed in his youth an irresistible inclination towards the artistic profession, which his father vainly tried to check by placing him first with a huissier, for whom he was employed as an errand boy, and later, with a bookseller.
He also worked for a lithographer and publisher named Belliard, and made his first attempts at lithography. Having mastered the techniques of lithography , Daumier began his artistic career by producing plates for music publishers, and illustrations for advertisements.
This was followed by anonymous work for publishers, in which he emulated the style of Charlet and displayed considerable enthusiasm for the Napoleonic legend.
After the revolution of he created art which expressed his political beliefs. Daumier was almost blind by His caricature of the king as Gargantua led to Daumier's imprisonment for six months at Ste Pelagie in Soon after, the publication of La Caricature was discontinued, but Philipon provided a new field for Daumier's activity when he founded the Le Charivari.
Daumier produced his social caricatures for Le Charivari, in which he held bourgeois society up to ridicule in the figure of Robert Macaire, hero of a popular melodrama. In another series, L'histoire ancienne, he took aim at the constraining pseudo-classicism of the art of the period. In Daumier embarked again on his political campaign, still in the service of Le Charivari, which he left in and rejoined in Around the mids Daumier started publishing his famous caricatures depicting members of the legal profession, known as 'Les Gens de Justice', a scathing satire about judges, defendants, attorneys and corrupt, greedy lawyers in general.
The figures who occupy the wooden bench in the painting's foreground are the lower classes who are separated from the more affluent passengers behind them. The feeling of compression that prevails in the background is dispelled by the spaciousness surrounding the figures nearest the picture plane. In contrast to the irritable expressions of the wealthier passengers in the background, the nursing mother, the grandmother, and the sleeping child - all bathed in a warm, golden light - seem quite serene.
Characteristic of his sketchy style of painting, resembling the exuberance of line in his lithographs, the figures in the foreground are voluminous, almost sculptural in their solidity. A series of lithographs that had appeared in Le Charivari from to called Les Chemins de Fer The Railroad , had dealt with this subject of public transport. One of the works in particular bore the caption, "Travelers showing less and less appreciation for traveling in third class during the winter period.
Once again, Daumier represents the working class as dignified and their supposed social superiors as literally less substantial, petty, and sniping. This painting seems to mark the apogee of Daumier's engagement with this theme, although it was not the only painting of its kind. According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, this picture "relates closely to a watercolor of the same title There are several other watercolor paintings and drawings on this theme.
Content compiled and written by The Art Story Contributors. Edited and published by The Art Story Contributors. The Art Story. Ways to support us. Movements and Styles: Romanticism.
Read full biography. Read artistic legacy. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Influences on Artist. Peter Paul Rubens. Rembrandt van Rijn. Francisco Goya. Gustave Courbet. Charles Baudelaire. Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot. Henri Rousseau. Victor Hugo. Charles Philipon. The Baroque. The Rococo. Edgar Degas. The books and articles below constitute a bibliography of the sources used in the writing of this page.
These also suggest some accessible resources for further research, especially ones that can be found and purchased via the internet. Daumier: Visions of Paris Our Pick. L'oeuvre grave du Maitre. The government destroys the lithographic stone and seizes nearly all existing copies. DR35 : Daumier is opposed to the division of Poland. The sentence is suspended.
February 23 DR41 : "Le cauchemar" the nightmare. The symbolic "pear" appears. March 8 DR42 : "Les masques de ". April 2 Daumier starts work on the "Busts". May 31 DR44 : The government is shown as a madhouse.
March-June Outbreak of a cholera epidemic in Paris, 19' victims. June Street fights of the workers in the streets of Paris and Lyon. Birth of A. January 27 End of Daumier's imprisonment. February Daumier leaves home and rents an apartment in Rue Saint-Denis. At the same time he makes 36 terracotta busts portraying parlamentarians of his time.
February 17 Law against Freedom of the Press. Law against political parties. Unrest in Paris. April Brutal suppression of the Republican revolt in Lyon and Paris. June New elections and a new crisis of Government.
May Trial against participants in the revolt of April July As a result of the new law against freedom of the press, Daumier makes fewer political and more socio-critical lithographs. August 2 DR Daumier's last political caricature of this period. Daumier's monthly income between and amounted to Francs. November Daumier receives 40 Francs for each lithograph and 20 to Francs for woodcuts.
From to he produced some wood engravings more than 1' in the course of his life. February 2 Daumier now receives 50 Francs per lithographic stone. His average monthly income amounts to Francs.
The railway system is being commercialized. Although realist painter friends like Corot , Millet and Theodore Rousseau encouraged him to persevere, too much of his energy was spent on producing his lithographed drawings. Early allegorical paintings he did during this period owe some debt to Rubens, for example, The Miller, his Son, and the Ass ; Burrell Collection, Glasgow , after which most of his painting was inspired by contemporary events, for example The Uprising ; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.
The sculptural nature of his drawing is seen in The Washerwoman ; Louvre, Paris. Daumier often depicted clowns and acrobats in his paintings for example, Saltimbanque , ; Louvre, Paris as well as theatre scenes Crispin and Scapin , ; Louvre, Paris. The picture Don Quixote and Sancho Panza ; Courtauld Institute Galleries, London is one of a group of paintings on this subject, showing the loose handling and calligraphic brushwork of his late years.
His paintings were not given the degree of finish expected by his contemporaries, but they have an evocative quality resulting from this sketchiness which gives them a particular appeal today. Daumier uses a tentative and broken line, so that the contours are made indefinite by the surrounding light, in an Impressionistic manner.
In his final years his eyesight failed and he was only saved from destitution by the generosity of friends, notably Corot. Daumier's exceptional talent for satirical caricature rested upon two qualities: first, his outstanding draughtsmanship, which was strongly influenced by Rembrandt ; second, his acute observation of individuals and situations.
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