Where Art, Politics And Humor Meet

The Fogg exhibition "La Caricature: Wit, Humor and Politics in French Caricature, 1830-1835" spotlights the master of the form, Honore Daumier. Daumier and his contemporaries created the pieces in this small show in response to the activities of the French monarchy.

Charles Philipon, one of the leaders of this artistic movement, published "La Caricature," a "short-lived but highly influential satirical journal." The magazine contained lithographs, an economical art form that had recently been developed.

Exhilaration notes at the entrance to the show introduce Philipon's work. These notes were written by James Cuno, the director of the Harvard Art Museums and the curator of the show. Four students from Cuno's Caricature seminar also worked on the exhibit and wrote the exhibition guide which explains the show piece by piece.

One work that Cuno highlights in the exhibit is Philipon's "Sketches Made in Court of November 14, 1831." The Pairs court tried the artist for creating a caricature that offended the king. Philipon claimed that since he had not named the king, any resemblance to the monarch was a coincidence. To illustrate this point, the artist drew four images before the court: the king, a pear with the king's hair and features, and a pear with only a suggestion of human features. Philipon argued that if the fourth image looked like the first, it was simply a coincidence.

As a result of this court case and the images Philipon sketched, the pear became a widely-recognized satirical symbol of king Louis Philippe. Another pear image in exhibit is "Kindly Take Your Filth Elsewhere, You Brats!" by Auguste Bouquet. This colorful lithograph depicts children scribbling images of a pear on the wall of a woman's house. The woman leans out the window scolding the children. The piece's ambiguity as to whether "fifth" refers to the scribbling or to the king himself heightens the satiric impact.

Daumier's work does not only focus on the king: other government officials were also the artist's targets. The drawing "D'Argout" exaggerates the long nose of its subject, the chief censor. Beneath the image is a coat of arms featuring the nose and a pair of scissors, which represent the office of censor. This common practice of embellishing one aspect of a person's features is known as "portrait charge."

Daumier's "It Sure Was Worth Getting Ourselves Killed" is a much more politically charged piece. This lithograph appeared as the last piece in "La Caricature," which ended publication in 1835 as ordered by the king's censors. The piece shows several figures rising from their graves. According to people who were killed in the Revolution, rising to assess the state of their country after their deaths. The work suggests the revolutionaries' sense of futility: upon looking at the world from the grave, the men see little change.

In light of the political nature of this exhibition, the notes written by the seminar students are indispensable. Also their detailed explanations of the symbolism in the pieces are extremely helpful.

Armed with the exhibition notes, any viewer will surely appreciate both the subtle artistic beauty, the political connotations and the humor in this show.