Daumier

1823 · B6599 — Honore Daumier incl. Chez Aubert and Cie; mostly 18230-1860's. Plates in very good condition; mostly crisp and clean; some minor reinforcements and tear repairs mainly marginal. Binding: Contemporary marbled boards; rebacked expertly saving the contemporary spine; flat spine with gilt lettered title on two and four; marbled endpapers. Marbled endpaper pasted to contemporary free endpaper. Notes: Honoré-Victorin Daumier 1808 – 1879 was a French printmaker caricaturist painter and sculptor whose many works offer commentary on social and political life of 19th century France. ‘Daumier produced more than 4000 lithographs 1000 wood engravings 1000 drawings . . perhaps best known for his caricatures of political figures and satires on the behavior of his countrymen. <br>‘During the reign of Louis Philippe Charles Philipon launched the comic journal 'La Caricature'. Daumier joined its staff which included such powerful artists as Devéria Raffet and Grandville and started upon his pictorial campaign of satire targeting the foibles of the bourgeoisie the corruption of the law and the incompetence of a blundering government. His caricature of the king as Gargantua led to Daumier's imprisonment for six months at Ste Pelagie in 1832. 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'.<br> <br>‘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 1848 Daumier embarked again on his political campaign still in the service of 'Le Charivari' which he left in 1863 and rejoined in 1864.<br> ‘Around the mid-1840s 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. A number of extremely rare albums appeared on white paper covering 39 different legal themes of which 37 had previously been published in the 'Charivari'. It is said that Daumier's own experience as an employee in a bailiff's office during his youth may have influenced his rather negative attitude towards the legal profession.<br> <br>‘In 1834 he produced the lithograph 'Rue Transnonain 15 April 1834' depicting the massacre in the rue transnoin which was part of the April 1834 riots in Paris. It was designed for the subscription publication 'L’Association Mensuelle'. The profits were to promote freedom of the press and defrayed legal costs of a lawsuit against the satirical politically progressive journal 'Le Charivari' to which Daumier contributed regularly. The police discovered the print hanging in the window of printseller Ernest Jean Aubert in the Galerie Véro-Dodat passageway in 1st arrondissement and subsequently tracked down and confiscated as many of the prints they could find along with the original lithographic stone on which the image was drawn. Existing prints of Rue Transnonain are survivors of this effort.<br> <br>The present collection is from series published in the Charivari: ACTUALITES CARICATURES DU JOUR. Celebrites de la Caricature CES BONS PARISIENS CROQUIS AQUATIQUES CROQUIS D’EXPRESSONS EN CHINE HISTOIRE ANCIENNE. La Caricature LA PECHE. LES BAIGNEURS. LES BANQUETEURS. LES BAS-BLEUS. LES BEAUX JOURS DE LA VIE. LES BONS BOURGEOIS LES PAPAS LES PHILANTROPES DU JOUR. LOCATAIRES ET PROPRIETAIRES. MOEURS CONJUGALES. PASTORALES. SILHOUETTES. TOUT CE QU’ON VOUDRA.<br> <br><br> Size: folio 350x258mm; plates Illustration: Illustrated with Charivari’s publication title ‘Les Bohemiens’; and a collection of onehundred 100 leaves with lithographs by Honore Daumier most signed within the plate in black 73 or contemporary hand-colour 27; plates from various series listed below of varying sizes printed in the publication ‘Le Charivari’. Two plates are repeated 52 & 63 and 45 & 65 respectively. Provenance: The thirty-seventh 37th bound plate has a marginal round ink stamp: Transation: Titles and captions Pages: Ll: bl. title 100 engraved leaves bl. Category: Book Caricatures; Book Europe France; Book Plate Books Colour; Honore Daumier, incl. Chez Aubert and Cie; hardcover