Honoré Daumier

Honoré Daumier (February 26, 1808 - February 10, 1879) was a French print-maker, caricaturist, painter, and sculptor. Many of his works offer commentary on social and political life in France in the 19th century. Daumier produced over 500 paintings, 4000 lithographs, 1000 wood engravings, 1000 drawings and 100 sculptures.

Quotes of Honoré Daumier

 * chronologically arranged, after date of the quotes of Honoré Daumier



1830's

 * My dear Genron, I am forced to write to you because I can not go to see you because I am detained at Ste. Pelagie by a slight indisposition.. ..I eagerly await your response. Reply me right away about Cabat or Huet;  my respects to your family.. Farewell, the Gouape, H.-D. she is always in all her Charms (the Republic) - do not talk to me about politics because the letters are opened.
 * Quote in Daumier's letter, from prison Ste. Pelagie Prison, Paris, 9 October, 1832; as quoted on website Daumier
 * His political print 'Gargantua', published in 'La Caricature', 1832, cost Daumier six months in prison, because of insulting king Louis Philippe


 * 'The swarm of ducks so darkens the sky that poor Europe does not know which way to go'
 * original French text:  'La nuée des canards obscurcissant tellement l'air que la pauvre Europe ne sait plus quel chemin prendre' 
 * title/caption in Daumier's print; published in 'La Caricature', 1833-35; number 3601 in the catalogue raisonné by Loys Delteil, Le peintre-graveur illustré, Vol. 28 (New York: Da Capo Press, 1969); as quoted on samfoxschool
 * The word 'canards' refers to physical ducks; it also means unfounded rumors or exaggerated stories. Ducks, symbolizing rumors was a visual motif Daumier used both before and after this print


 * 'We have not died in vain'
 * title/caption in Daumier's print; in the last publication of 'La Caricature', 27 August 1835; from: Daumier, the Man and the Artist, Michael Sadleir; Halton and Truscott Smith LTD, London, 1924, p. 9; from website Daumier

1840's

 * Dear Monsieur, I can make a drawing for you; when you have time to see me we will talk about it. I am always at home during the day. I have the honor of greeting you, h. Daumier.
 * Quote of Daumier from his handwritten, undated letter, presumably to mr. Deschamps, probably Monday 20 December 1843; from website Daumier


 * Paris, 30-7-1843, h. Daumier - I, the undersigned, Honoré Daumier declare to reduce the price of my drawings in lithography, to forty francs the drawing with the condition 1st, that the first 11 stones which I will deliver to 'Charivari' will be paid to me at the old price, that is, fifty francs each. 2° that this reduction will be made to me as long as M Dutacy remains attached to the.. .'Charivari'; this having been made for the sole purpose of being agreeable to him.
 * Quote in a handwritten letter, by Daumier, 30 June, 1843; confirming his agreement with Philipon; from website Daumier
 * 40 Francs for each lithograph; this is one of the few documents, showing the income which Daumier drew from his artistic activity. With this salary he would be able to support a family of four

undated quotes

 * I was sick these days here is what prevented me from delivering my stones last Friday as I promised you I am in the purgations it is better and I hope to send my stones Tuesday at the latest.. .Bien a vous, - h. Daumier
 * Quote from an undated letter of Daumier [c. 1850's] to Pierre Véron from website Daumier
 * Véron was a later editor [1850's] of the Charivari; Daumier is excusing himself for not being able to deliver the lithographic stones as promised because he was ill.

Quotes about Honoré Daumier

 * chronologically arranged, after date of the quotes about Honoré Daumier


 * At the moment of our writing these lines, M. Daumier, sentenced to six months' imprisonment for the caricature of 'Gargantua' was arrested under the eyes of his father and mother, whose sole support he is.
 * Quote from 'La Caricature', 30 August 1832; as cited in 'Daumier', 'The Studio special Autumn' number, 1904, by Henri Frantz (transl. Miss Helen Chisholm). ed. Charles Holme; Offices of the Studio, London, Paris, New York, MCMIV, p. DVi
 * about his print 'Gargantua', - showing a long-visaged personage bearing a distant resemblance to Louis Philippe, seated upon a throne in a robe of state


 * Dear Mr. Moureaux, You will soon receive your drawing [made by Daumier], you just need a little patience. I saw Daumier on my last trip to Paris. Since I will not be able to come to the lunch in your honor I want to tell you that I will be with you in my imagination. I shake your hand, J.F. Millet, see you soon.
 * Quote from a letter of Millet regarding Daumier, from Barbizon, April 14, 1866 from website Daumier
 * Daumier and the painters of the Barbizon school in the 1850's were friends (Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, Théodore Rousseau)


 * [at Charles-François Daubigny's place where] ..animated conversations on the direct study of nature or the comparative merits of Haarlem paint driers and thick oil paints were often interrupted bu bursts of merriment greeting a witticism of one of the guests, who included non other than Corot, Daumier, Geoffroy-Dechaume, etc.
 * Quote by Felix Braquemond, remembering Paris evenings around 1854; as cited in Corot, Gary Tinterow, Michael Pantazzi, Vincent Pomarède - Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (France), National Gallery of Canada, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), 1996, p. 150 – note 43


 * Daumier's.. drawing is fluent and easy; it is a continuous improvisation. He has a wonderful, almost super-human memory, from which he works as from a model. His powers of observation are such that in his work we never find a single head that is out of character with the figure beneath it.. .The artist manifests here a marvelous cunning in portraiture: while caricaturing and exaggerating the features of his originals, he yet adheres so faithfully to nature that these productions might serve as models to all portraitists. Here in these animalised faces may be seen and read clearly all the meanness-es of soul, all the absurdities, all the aberrations of intelligence, all the vices of the heart; yet at the same time all is broadly drawn and accentuated. Daumier combined the suppleness of the art with the exactness of a Lavater.
 * Quote of Charles Baudelaire, in Curiosites Esthetiques, 1868; as cited in 'Daumier', 'The Studio special Autumn' number, 1904, by Henri Frantz (transl. Miss Helen Chisholm). ed. Charles Holme; Offices of the Studio, London, Paris, New York, MCMIV, p. DVii


 * However, I remember very well being most impressed by a drawing of Daumier's: an old man under the chestnut trees in the Champs Elysées (an illustration for Balzac), though the drawing was not all that important. What impressed me so much at the time was something so stout and manly in Daumier's conception, something that made me think It must be good to think and to feel like that and to overlook or ignore a multitude of things and to concentrate on what makes us sit up and think and what touches us as human beings more directly and personally than meadows or clouds.
 * Quote of Vincent van Gogh, in his letter, from The Hague, 22 October 1882, to his brother Theo; translated by Mrs. Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, ed. Robert Harrison, number 237


 * I am sending you.. ..a portfolio containing ten lithographs by Daumier..  .These are rare by now and I prize them much. I often used to look at them but I am sending them to you in order to give you an opportunity to fill your mind with the real artistry of these two great masters. I am entrusting them to you in the expectation that you will take good care of them, and bring them with you on your next trip. There is nothing better in lithography.
 * Quote of Camille Pissarro's letter, from Osny, 22 January 1884, to his son; in Camille Pissarro - Letters to His Son Lucien ed. John Rewald, with assistance of Lucien Pissarro (translated from the unpublished French letters by Lionel Abel); Pantheon Books Inc. New York, second edition, 1943, p. 52-53


 * To give you an idea of what I mean by done, I sent you those Daumier lithographs.. ..they are "marvels" from any point of view. For myself, I cannot look at them without admiring this great artist. But clearly understand, that if it is done that's mainly because it is constructed. The junctures of the arms, legs and ankles are as wonderful as in the greatest masters, and these are caricatures! Notice the ties, the collars, the trousers, the folds which reveal so well the forms underneath ; the shoes, notice them, and the hands!
 * Quote of Camille Pissarro's letter, from Osny 22 January 1884, to his son; in Camille Pissarro - Letters to His Son Lucien ed. John Rewald, with assistance of Lucien Pissarro (translated from the unpublished French letters by Lionel Abel); Pantheon Books Inc. New York, second edition, 1943, p. 60


 * In Rouen, I bought a copy of Champfleury's 'Histoire de la Caricature', an invaluable book with illustrations by Daumier. In it the whole story of Daumier is told. Looking through this book you see at once that Daumier was the man his drawings show him to be, a convinced, a true republican. And you feel in his drawings the sweep of a great artist who marched towards his goal but did not cease to be an artist in the most profound sense, so that even without legends and explanations his drawings are beautiful.
 * Quote of Camille Pissarro, Osny, 17 February 1884, in a letter to his son Lucien; from Camille Pissarro - Letters to His Son Lucien ed. John Rewald, with assistance of Lucien Pissarro; from the unpublished French letters; transl. Lionel Abel; Pantheon Books Inc. New York, second edition, 1943, p. 57


 * He loved this little cot [in Valmondois]. There were passed the only hours of his life in which he was permitted to escape from the tyranny of his calling; to hug closely his fair dreams of art; in short, to know that fruitful, restful, and encouraging work of hours chosen and determined at will. Another attraction made still more dear to him this secluded corner of an obscure village. Not only could he there breathe freely and work at ease; but he felt himself encompassed by warm friendship, neighboured by brave comrades who loved him, and who, like himself, meditated far from the bustle of towns.
 * Quote of M. Arsene Alexandre, in Honoré Daumier, l'homme et l'œuvre, H. Laurens, Paris 1888; as quoted in 'Daumier', 'The Studio special Autumn' number, 1904, by Henri Frantz (transl. Miss Helen Chisholm). ed. Charles Holme; Offices of the Studio, London, Paris, New York, MCMIV, p. Dxix
 * Daumier's last years he lived in a cottage given him by Corot in the little village of Valmondois, where he spent many years in moderate comfort, saddened only by an increasing weakness of his eyes


 * Daumier highlighted socioeconomic distinctions in the newly modernized urban environment in a group of paintings executed around 1864 that illustrate the experience of modern rail travel in first-, second-, and third-class train compartments. In 'The First-Class Carriage', there is almost no physical or psychological contact among the four well-dressed figures, whereas 'The Third-Class Carriage' is tightly packed with an anonymous crowd of working-class men and women.
 * Quote of Ross Finocchio, 2004 in: his essay 'Nineteenth-Century French Realism', Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, October 2004