Hunting
Painter, sculptor and lithographer, Honoré Daumier is famous for his numerous caricatures that illustrate the pages of the satirical newspapers of the nineteenth century, in particular La Caricature and Le Charivari. In 1830, he was recruited by the Republican opposition press led by Charles Philippon (1800-1862): it was the beginning of a long and intense career. For nearly fifty years, his abundant production provided valuable documentation on 19th century society. With his incisive line, Daumier interested in various themes.
He criticizes political power, mocks bourgeois society and more generally the mores of society. Daumier tackled the theme of hunting on several occasions, notably in the series La Chasse (Hunting, 1836) and Émotions de chasse (Hunting emotions, 1854). His depictions of middle-class people hunting are among the first in French art.
During the nineteenth century, and particularly under the July Monarchy, hunting was democratized: the bourgeoisie was introduced to this practice previously reserved for the aristocracy. Daumier took advantage of this to make fun of the city bourgeois, improvised hunters who, devoid of any ability to adapt, go from failure to failure. Or fight the game once killed ...
