Here's some Daumier caricatures of French bureaucrats of the mid-1800s. Neat, huh!?
Monday, May 07, 2007
DAUMIER CARICATURE SCULPTURES
Here's some Daumier caricatures of French bureaucrats of the mid-1800s. Neat, huh!? 
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14 comments:
What an appropriate topic for this weekend - the French elections were held this weekend.
Where are those from?
I'm going to be in France soon and I want to see them up close! There must be a lot of Daumiers in Paris.
The visages of complacent greed are timeless.
Jennifer: Isn't it great!? Someone who likes us won! I'm so happy because I love the French and have been very uncomfortable with the recent antagonism.
Jenny: The pictures are from a book that I long ago returned to the library. I don't know who has the originals.
When you get back I hope you'll post all your thoughts about Paris on your blog.
Aw, nuts! Thanks anyway, Eddie. Well, I should be sure to find out were the Daumiers are when I get there.
The elections were a hoot...we get TV5 on cable (an all-french channel) and have watched the daily french newscast for years now so we know "Sarko" from way back(he's certainly been through a lot). All the political figures are fascinating, in fact, because they are about 50 thousand times more articulate than most of ours.
We watched the results on Sunday; after Sarkozy's victory speech the crowd spontanteously sang La Marseilles-it was very dramatic(is there a better national anthem anywhere?). And they shame us, btw, by voting in number almost triple ours. le sigh.
Anyway, yes, cert, I'll post about my trip. I have a feeling it'll start out as very surreal, then (I hope) I'll feel so at home I won't want to leave. : )
I'm in ecstasy!
All these sculptures (and more of them) are at the Musee d' Orsay, which is at the top of my list of museums!
If you go to the museum's website they have all the little busts' photographs. Aopparently M. Daumier did them simply as studies for his caricatures, not as an end unto themselves.
Amazing stuff! Thanks so much for posting them, Eddie!
Sarkozy is like Thatcher The Sequel. In short, a great guy! I think it's sad(and nearly fitting) that they should vote so much more enthusiastically than us, but they also start riots when the other guy won....which seems counterintuitive. Perhaps voting isn't a vital part of their culture or something.
Those caricatures are strikingly modern! They all mutter "harumph!"
Now there is a genre I've never thought about -- nor maybe even heard of! -- before: caricature sculpture! I can't even think of any other examples. Is it because they are rare, I wonder, or have they just somehow escaped my notice?
These are great, BTW. They remind me of a quotation from Wittgenstein: "The human body is the best picture of the human soul." You really feel that you know something about these people. Something discreditable, of course!
Lester: Let us not forget the funny Inca caricatures I posted about last summer!
Hey, I'm going to do a post on the stoics soon!
Jenny: Studies for his caricatures!? Well I'll be dogged!
Lester, Spitting Image did a whole series filled with charicatured sculptures(puppets really)They were very popular in the 1980s.
Seems like I have seen a whole bunch of these in Bronze, in some NYC or Washington DC Museum.
Hirschorn maybe.
These were (the last time I saw them) in the Musee D'Orsay in Paris. They are quite small and were done from life. Daumier used them as reference for his drawings. I worked on Spitting Image and we were really impressed by Daumier's caricatures and these little heads in particular. It is very difficult to model at this scale and create a caricature.
The clay Daumier caricatures can be found at D'Orsay Museum in Paris. There are shelves of them.
Marvellous to see these images, Uncle Eddie, thank you for posting them!
Lester Hunt said...
Now there is a genre I've never thought about -- nor maybe even heard of! -- before: caricature sculpture! I can't even think of any other examples. Is it because they are rare, I wonder, or have they just somehow escaped my notice?
Although not nearly as ubiquitous as drawn caricature, sculpted caricature nevertheless occupies a substantial niche. If you want to see superb examples, Lester, google the following:
Roger Law, Peter Fluck
They produced dozens of clay sculptures which appeared on magazone covers in the 1960s and 1970s. They went on to produce...
Spitting Image
Superb and innovative British satirical sketch show which utilised life-size latex rubber caricature puppets of politicians and celebrities.
Tim Watts, Pablo Bach
Both were leading sculptors on Spitting Image.
David O'Keefe
An incredibly talented American sculptor of illustrative caricatures which are utilised in much the same way as Fluck & Law's* were back in the 60s and 70s.
*Or, as they called themselves, Luck & Flaw...
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