Daumier, Honoré (-Victorin)

(born Feb. 20/26, 1808, Marseille, Fr.—died Feb. 11, 1879, Valmondois) French painter, sculptor, and caricaturist. He was born into a family of artists. From age 13 he worked for a bailiff in a law court and later as a clerk in a bookstore, where he observed and analyzed the appearance and behaviour of people of different social classes. In 1829, after studying lithography, he began contributing cartoons and drawings satirizing 19th-century French politics and society to periodicals and came to enjoy a wide reputation. He produced more than 4,000 lithographs and 4,000 illustrative drawings. His paintings, drawing upon literary themes and documenting contemporary life and manners, were executed in a vigorous, sketchy style; they were rarely exhibited, and he remained unknown as a painter. In sculpture he specialized in caricature heads and figures; some 15 small clay busts occupy an important place in the history of sculpture.

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