Thursday, February 22, 2024

hereeeeere's honoré daumier (the political satirist)



this is a caricature of "Tragala" a character in the play Vingt ans plus tard ("twenty years later"). 

daumier is depicting the King Louis-Philippe as the actor emmanuel lepeintre in his role (Tragala) in the play. the big belly represented a perfect similarity to the king's own figure. the king wears the uniform of a police-officer (chef des alguazils).

study of faces (daumier would use these for his political lampooning)


daumier, past, present, future

daumier gets to the truth of the subject matter! just the exact amount of detail to get to the essence of character.  

Daumier is part of the naturalist movement, which is a reaction against the idealized and stylized paintings of the Romantic era. naturalists were also about recording things as they are, but they paid more attention to getting the precise details just right. 

there's a bit of pessimism reflected in the idea of man's futility against nature (some of daumier's religious paintings may suggest this).

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