Portraits-charges of the happy medium celebrities

The Legislative Belly. Appearance of the ministerial benches of the improstitute chamber of 1834.
DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)
Charles Philippon.
DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)
Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet.
DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)
François-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot, Minister of the Interior (1790-1874).
DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)

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Title: The Legislative Belly. Appearance of the ministerial benches of the improstitute chamber of 1834.

Author : DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)

Creation date : 1834

Date shown: 1834

Dimensions: Height 28 - Width 43

Technique and other indications: in The Monthly Association, January 13, 1834 lithography

Storage place: National Library of France (Paris) website

Contact copyright: © Photo National Library of France

Picture reference: The Monthly Association, January 13, 1834

The Legislative Belly. Appearance of the ministerial benches of the improstitute chamber of 1834.

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Title: Charles Philippon.

Author : DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)

Creation date : 1833

Date shown: 1833

Dimensions: Height 16.4 - Width 13

Technique and other indications: modeling; earthen; polychrome

Storage place: Orsay Museum website

Contact copyright: © Photo RMN-Grand Palais - H. Lewandowskisite web

Picture reference: 98CE17105 / RE 3504

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Title: Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet.

Author : DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)

Creation date : 1832

Date shown: 1832

Dimensions: Height 19.9 - Width 18

Technique and other indications: modeling; earthen; polychrome

Storage place: Orsay Museum website

Contact copyright: © Photo RMN-Grand Palais - H. Lewandowski

Picture reference: 98CE17122 / RF 3512

Jean-Pons-Guillaume Viennet.

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Title: François-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot, Minister of the Interior (1790-1874).

Author : DAUMIER Honoré (1808 - 1879)

Creation date : 1833

Date shown: 1833

Dimensions: Height 22.5 - Width 15.4

Technique and other indications: modeling; earthen; polychrome

Storage place: Orsay Museum website

Picture reference: 98CE15057 / RF 3493

François-Pierre-Guillaume Guizot, Minister of the Interior (1790-1874).

Publication date: February 2014

Historical context

The busts-charges of “Celebrities of the happy medium” and the lithographs which result from them date back to the beginnings of the July monarchy. Staggered from 1832 to 1835, the publication of these satirical lithographs has as a backdrop the hardening of the rivalry between the “party of movement” (Laffitte), in power only from November 2, 1830 to March 22, 1831, and “the party of the resistance ”(Casimir Perier, Thiers, Guizot, Soult…) which takes over under the critical eye and in the face of the growing agitation of the Republicans, to whom Philipon and Daumier belong.

Image Analysis

“ The caricature, writes Charles Philipon in the April 26, 1832 issue of this journal, had in time promised its subscribers a gallery of portraits of celebrities of the happy medium, whose resemblances, conscientiously studied, must have, in addition to an energetic character, this trait burlesque known as “charge”. Accustomed to include in her publications all the possible conditions for success, The caricature postponed the completion of this project for some time, because she had each character modeled. It was after these clay molds [sic] that the designs were executed. "It should be noted that the project had been entrusted to Daumier, to whom probably came the idea of these models (and not" molds ") in colored raw earth which constitute the most remarkable series of sculpted caricatures ever made. The busts-charges that have come down to us are thirty-six: the majority represent ministers and influential figures from the entourage of King Louis-Philippe, deputies mainly from the judiciary, industry and the bank, government journalists, all hostile to republican ideas, even, like Guillaume Viennet, to the Romantic movement and to the most modern trends in art and literature. Several of these "happy medium celebrities", deputies or ministers, reappear on the benches of the "improstitute chamber", to use the expression of The caricature, in the magnificent plate of 1834, The Legislative Belly. However, some of the models for the busts belong to Daumier’s friendly and professional entourage, such as Philipon, the Gallois publicists and Louis Huart. It is moreover not certain that the gallery is complete, because the three series of lithographs for which these sculptures served as a model - portrait-vignettes “with arms”, portrait-vignettes in bust and full-length portraits - represent others. figures of the regime which it would be surprising if Daumier did not model the models: thus Thiers, Bugeaud, Choiseul, Advocate General Plougoulm, one of the favorite targets of Charivari, etc.

Interpretation

Arsène Alexandre, Daumier's first biographer, testifies to this - “It must be said and we will have the opportunity to repeat that Never ever did Daumier draw from nature "- it was in the studio, and not on the model, that Daumier modeled the load-busts, which suggests the prodigious acuity of his memory - no preparatory drawings are preserved - and the reliability of his profession as a sculptor. Although we know of them some remarkable antecedents, such as the amusing and sometimes cruel figurines-charges of Charles Dantan, the busts of Daumier occupy a quite original place in the relatively rare genre of caricature caricature. By accusing the physiognomic peculiarities of his characters, Daumier does not only give in to the taste for ugly and burlesque well in the spirit of his time, as evidenced for example by the Grimaces, drawn by Boilly between 1823 and 1828. He goes further, in a way drawing lessons from the physiognomy of the Swiss pastor Lavater and from the phrenology of Doctor Gall, who claimed to study the character, the dominant “faculties” of individuals, the the first according to the features of their face, the second according to the general shape and bumps of their skull. If Daumier “charges” his characters, it is therefore not to betray them, but on the contrary to reveal what he, as a republican, considered to be their deep personality, and at the same time denounce the failings of the regime that in his eyes they embodied. It is obvious that a correct interpretation of these works, which constitute one of the most violent charges ever imagined against the liberal bourgeoisie, must take into account the ideological context in which they were created. The development of liberal regimes in the 19th century^e century was made at the cost of a struggle both against the clerical and legitimist right and against the neo-Jacobin culture of the republicans ...