Daumier

Daumier, HENRI, a celebrated French caricaturist, was born at Marseille in 1808. Fashion, tittle-tattle, scandal, politics, blemishes of figure, and oddities of character in turn inspired his inexhaustible genius for mockery. Few among his illustrious contemporaries escaped his pencil, and his caricatures had always some strikingly truthful feature about them. He made his début in the Charivari, in a series of sketches from Robert Macaire; and the revolution of 1848 suggested two of his most remarkable series—Idylles Parlementaires and Les Représentants Représentés. In old age Daumier became blind, and was befriended by Corot. He died at Valmondois, 10th Feb. 1879. See monograph by A. Alexandre (Paris, 1888).