French Caricature

FRENCH CARICATURE Effect of Censorship.—Meanwhile, our attention may conve niently be turned to France, where personal caricature, even if it had established itself as soon as in England, was hardly likely to be allowed the same liberty in connection with political satire. The rarity of satirical prints of the earlier part of the i 8th cen tury is due rather to the extreme rigour with which they were sup pressed than to their numbers, and apart from politics there was a large and varied supply of very interesting material for Grand Carteret's volume L'Estampe Satirique, etc., and the more recent and fuller works of Andre Blum on the same subject. Among the earliest examples is another medical satire by poor Watteau who, in the short interval between his return from England and his death in 1721, burlesqued the whole faculty in a drawing which was engraved by Comte de Caylus. Caylus himself appears to have caught the infection of pure caricature from Ghezzi, and he made some very curious portrait-charges of the frequenters of Madame Doublet's salon. Of more public interest were the satires against literary and artistic personages; in 1728 the Al manac de Parnasse had a frontispiece introducing portraits of Rousseau, Voltaire, Racine le jeune, Crebillon and other figures, which was suppressed by the police and the Almanac sold without it. Voltaire in later years was bombarded with caricatures, one of which had the interest for us of showing Urania offering him a pair of spectacles to help him in reading Newton's Principia. Jacques Saly produced a series of caricatures when he was at the French Academy in Rome in 175o, thus carrying on the true Carraccian tradition. The lighter side of social satire is repre sented by Jeurat, J. B. Huet and Gabriel St. Aubin, all of whom had a kindly eye for les fines de joie, and later by Duboucourt, some of whose works have more than a little in common with the best of Rowlandson's. With Vauxhall Gardens and La Promenade de la Galerie du Palais Royal, published in 1785 and i 787, Eng land and France, the only two countries in which a continuous de velopment of caricature is traceable, were within measurable dis tance of each other. In the years of the Revolution and Napo leonic Wars such an approach could hardly be expected to be con tinued; no later than 1791 the rift was wide enough for the fol lowing legend beneath a very telling print :—"La grande aiguiserie royale des poignards anglais: Le fameux ministre Pitt aiguisant les poignards . . . Le gros Georges Dandin tournant le roule en haletant de fatigue." The very numerous satires of these years are of the greatest interest historically, but are not of an attractive nature. It is, however, all the more interesting on this account to note that when the two countries were, so to speak, starting afresh in the second quarter of the next century, they did so on remarkably similar lines. Let us, therefore, continue with France.

The Reign of Louis Philippe.

Champfleury begins his History of Modern Caricature with the reign of Louis Philippe in 5830. In his preface he remarks that the book might well be styled "The demolishers of the bourgeoisie," for they had no more de termined adversaries than Daumier, Travies and Henri Monnier; and that whatever satirical characters might be created in the future to succeed those of Mayeux, Robert Macaire and Monsieur Prudhomme, those three types would subsist as the most faithful representatives of the bourgeoisie from 183o to 185o. The king himself, he adds, was the first bourgeois in the realm, and seemed to think that he could govern it with an umbrella for a sceptre, and that he only had to open it to protect himself from political storms. Certainly that strikes the dominant note of modern cari cature, which henceforth, not only in France and England, but generally everywhere, became gradually less rude and savage, and more "refined" and domesticated. As both politically and socially the world settled down after the Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, so caricature, save for occasional necessities, assumed a more polite, if more sarcastic, tone, and monsters and deformities gave place to subtler rendering of human weaknesses or excesses. In France, at first, the satire was none the less biting, the ridicule none the less stinging for its artistic excellence, and personal, physical caricature was used by Daumier and others with terrific effect. The king's heavy physiognomy was transformed into a symbol—la poi'a—and there was no public character who es taped merciless caricature of his features, gestures and habits. At the same time, however, the artistic sense predominated, and when the bitterness had somewhat abated, survived as an example to be followed, a standard to be maintained. Even if this improve ment was, so to speak, in the air, it was actually precipitated by one man, namely Charles Philipon. Whether or not he influenced John Doyle in the course of their lithographic studies, who, as we shall see, was doing something of the same sort for English cari cature, he was certainly the great general who organized and led to glory the noble army of French satirical artists, and thereby furnished an example which has been followed more or less closely in every country in the world.

Philipon's

Career.—Philipon was born at Lyons in 1800 and settled in Paris in 1825, where he took to lithography for a living and produced some very charming caricatures ; but he soon real ized his ambition to found a paper. This was La Caricature, which made its appearance on Nov. 4, 183o, and after braving a con tinuous deluge of legal actions, was suppressed in 1835. Its chief artists were Honore Daumier, Henri Monnier and J. T. Travies, above mentioned.

On Dec. I, 1832, was born Philipon's second child, Le Charivari, which still survives in a new series, having only temporarily suc cumbed to the World War in 1915. This was a daily paper, "pub liant chaque jour un nouveau dessin." Its birthday vignette, de signed by Tony Johannot, the public were informed, required such special preparation that it could not appear in time. When no more than eight years old, it stood godfather to another lusty, and still thriving paper, Punch, or the London Charivari. In 1838, on Nov. 1, La Caricature Provisoire donned the shoes of its deceased brother, dedicated "aux amis de l'ancienne Caricature politique," and adorned by its artists Daumier, Grandville, Forest, Bouchot, etc.; and when asked about the adjective provisoire, Philipon re plied: "Si elle n'est pas politique, elle sera non politique . . . elle sera morale, litteraire, theatrale, artistique, sociale, medicale, chirurgicale, agricole, somnambuliste, anabaptiste, etc." In the fol lowing June it received a new subtitle, "revue morale, judiciaire, litteraire, artistique, fashionable et scenique," having abdicated its title of provisoire, "desormais trop sure de vivre longtemps, et bien, pour ne pas se proclamer definitive." In Jan. 1842 its sub title was further modified, and it broke out into coloured plates of a most distressing brilliance.

Philipon's third child to attain public importance was Le Journal pour Rire, a specimen number of which was issued in Dec. 1847, and No. I on Feb. 5 following. This was on large newspaper sheets and full of wood-cut illustrations by some of the older artists, and also some new ones. Among these one of the most brilliant was Gustave Dore, who furnished Punch with the idea for at least two of his most successful features, namely, the "Bird's Eye Views of Society" and "The Royal Academy Guyed." Besides these, Philipon was responsible for Le Musee Philipon and was also the godfather of a great many occasional publications. In No. 5 of Le Journal pour Rire is a list of "Caricatures par les principaux dessinateurs du Musee Philipon, du Charivari, du Jour nal pour Rire, et de la maison Aubert," some of them consisting of as many as 7o or 8o plates, a glance at which will give us a fair idea of what purely social caricature had become under the fostering influence of Philipon. First place is given to Gavarni, with "Le Carnaval," "Le Carnaval a Paris," "La Boite aux Lettres," "Les Maris venges," "Les Artistes," "Les Impressions de Menage," "Les Lorettes," "Les Enfants terribles." Next is Daumier with "Les Beaux Jours de la Vie" (8o plates), "Les Cro quis d'Expression" and "Les Robert Macaire" (with Philipon). Then.Bouchot's 7o "Bonnes Fetes Musicales"; Jacques's "Militar iana"; Behr's "L'Amour a Paris "Croquis parisiens" and "L' Opera au 19e siecle" by E. de Beaumont ; "Au Bal de l'Opera," "Les Troupiers Francais," "Croquis militaires," "Les Grisettes," and "Physiologie des bals publics" by Vernier. The anonymous remainder is not long, and is necessary to complete the survey :- "Nos Gentilshommes," "Turlupiniades," "Souvenirs de Garnison," "A la Guerre comme a la Guerre," "Moeurs Algeriennes," "Moeurs britanniques," "Les Charges parisiens," "Le Conservatoire de danse," "Ces bons Parisiens," "Prophetes chariviques." For one man such an achievement, of which the above is the barest outline, was prodigious, and its effect on caricature, both in France and other countries, has been decisive. He raised cari cature from the precarious issue of occasional prints to the regular position of an indispensable auxiliary to journalism. To his recog nition of the practical and artistic possibilities of lithography com bined, we owe the magnificent series of drawings that await resur rection in the forgotten or neglected volumes above mentioned, and his undying ardour in political ridicule is still traceable in these days of milder expression.

Among the brilliant and very numerous band of his artists, three names only are familiar to the public in Great Britain or the U.S.A. Daumier, who stands head and shoulders above the rest ; Dore, who might have rivalled him had he been prevented, as Daumier was, from evaporating into popular painting; and Gavarni. The first has now been recognized, like Rowlandson, as a serious factor in the history of art ; the second had his popu lar triumph and must wait for reinstatement until the effects of it have cleared off. The third is still hovering. But none of the three can be fairly appreciated, until much more of their work is brought out into the light. Of the rest, Travies and Monnier stand out conspicuously as the creators of two almost historical char acters—the hunchback Mayeux and Monsieur Prudhomme—char acters like Philipon's and Daumier's Robert Macaire and Ber trand (feebly imitated in "Ally Sloper" and "Ikey Mo") ; and Grandville, who is best known for his ornithological whims, though they were but a part of his excellent works, deserves equal rank.