Gargantua

Question 1

Subject?

Answer 1

King Louis Phillipe represented as the giant Gargantua

Question 2

King Louis Phillippe?

Answer 2

Depicted as a fat giant, with a pear-like head, sitting on an ornate chair.

Question 3

The Labourers?

Answer 3

The poor citizens of France are shown on the lower right placing what little
money they have into the baskets ready to be fed to the King.

Question 4

Parisian Cityscape?

Answer 4

Behind the group of poor people is the outline of a city-scape (Paris).

Question 5

The King’s Courtiers?

Answer 5

Around the bottom of the throne strut the King’s courtiers, brandishing commissions and decorations excreted from beneath the throne. As a result of their association with the monarchy these men have grown fat on the money
from the working poor.

Question 6

Les poires?

Answer 6

To his contemporaries, the pear-shaped head of the giant would have made him
immediately recognisable as King Louis-Philippe, as Daumier had created a
series of cartoons in which Louis-Philippe was shown as a human pear – in
French, pear is slang for ‘fathead’.

Question 7

Gargantua?

Answer 7

Gargantua was a popular, if crude, comic-satirical character in French literature
- a giant noted for his huge capacity for food and drink. Daumier uses the figure
of Gargantua to satirise the abuses and mismanagement of the monarchy.

Question 8

Bourbon monarchy?

Answer 8

Following the fall of Napoleon Bonaparte in 1815, the Bourbon monarchy was
restored. However it was an unpopular regime, with criticism focussing on upon
abuses of royal power and nepotism which, combined with a run of poor harvests
and urban poverty, culminated in the July Revolution of 1830.

Question 9

Regin of Louis Philippe?

Answer 9

Originally style himself as the ‘Citizen King’ however was notorious for financial
excesses –claimed a personal salary x37 to that of Napoleon.

Question 10

Changing art market?

Answer 10

Cartoons were a popular vehicle for political satire in the 18th c. They were easily
mass produced in newspapers like La Caricature and reached a wide audience.
Developments in science and trade resulted in the rise of a wealthy merchant class,
who enjoyed art that poked fun at the excess and indulgence of the aristocracy.

Question 11

Influence of William Hogarth?

Answer 11

William Hogarth in England popularised mass-produced satirical illustrations of
society during the mid 18c and this practice quickly spread across Europe –in contrast
to Hogarth, however, Daumier’s art has a particularly sombre, realistic undertone.

Question 12

Daumier?

Answer 12

French sculptor, printmaker and caricaturist. Following the 1830 Revolution
Daumier joined the staff of the satirical, anti-monarchist journal La Caricature.

Question 13

Imprisonment?

Answer 13

Gargantua was intended to be published in La Caricature however government
censorship halted the printing. An article appeared instead which criticised the
Court’s decision to censor the cartoon. As a result the publisher and artist were
both sentenced to 6 months in prison.

Question 14

Lithographic print?

Answer 14

Produced by drawing an image with oil or wax onto the surface of a smooth
metal or stone plate. The surface was treated with a mixture of acid and gum
arabic, etching the areas that were not protected by the oily image. When the
plate was moistened the etched areas retained water whilst an oil based ink was
applied which stuck only to the original drawing. The ink would then be
transferred to a blank sheet to produce a print.

Question 15

Distribution?

Answer 15

Developed at the end of the 18c for producing cheap, mass-produced works. See
also ‘changing art market’

Question 16

Political satire in French Culture?

Answer 16

Daumier was jailed for the cartoon, and an 1835 law specifically targeting
caricature was introduced, on the grounds that, “a caricature amounts to an act
of violence.” The law remained in place for decades, leading to at least 15
prosecutions for the crime of cartooning.

Question 17

Changing attitudes towards the aristocracy/monarchy?

Answer 17

For the middle-classes, the decadence, immorality and excesses of the
aristocracy and monarchy was a lesson in morality. Enlightenment thinkers
rejected the Divine Right of Kings and increasingly questioned the role of the
monarch, leading to the French Revolution in 1789 followed by subsequent
revolutions in the 19th century.