Honoré Daumier

Daumier is best known for his satirical drawings and watercolors depicting French nobility, politicians, magistrates, lawyers, and other bureaucrats.  Considered among the best caricature and social satire drawings of the 19th Century, these pictures offered pointed critiques of contemporary society and captured the flavor of modern life during the Second Empire.  But in addition to their cultural and political significance, Daumier's drawings also demonstrated his unrivaled skill as a draftsman and his eye for singling out the most expressive physical details of those whom he depicted. 

In this work which probably dates from the early 1860s, Daumier depicts the defense attorney as he is counciled by a member of the courtroom audience.  Daumier depicted this same lawyer in a series of watercolors dating between 1862-1865.  When several these works were exhibited in Paris in 1878, the laywer and aspiring politician worried that Daumier's depictions were too recognizable.  The critic Geoffroy-Dechaume assured him that all of the characters were imaginary, but explained that Daumier "knows laywers, and above all, the lawyer, better than they know themselves. Whence the resemblance that so surprises you" (quoted in Daumier, 1808-1879 (exhibition catalogue, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris; The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., 1999-2000, p. 271).