One of the most interesting artists of the "realism" 19th century French art period is Daumier. I love the honesty shown through his paintings, drawings, caricatures etc. The image above is entitled "Gargantua", a caricature of then King Louis-Phillipe. The king is represented as a "giant gourmand, a character taken from Francois Rabelais' series of stories" (source). The overly fed king is sitting in front of the National Assembly on a giant commode (which is properly disguised as a chair). The huge plank coming out of his mouth is positioned in such a way that the poor and working class send up food, money and other fruits of their labor which are inevitably excreted to the officials beneath the commode, while on the other side of him are the working class and starved people of his society who are receiving nothing. **The negative portrayal of the king in this caricature put Daumier in jail, who was 24 at the time.
This image reminded me of the what is currently going on in America. Where is the Daumier of the states? Take off some of the hair and add some big ears, I can see it.
Bisous,
Jennifer Pauline
1 comment:
super blog !! j'aime beaucoup
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