Businessmen and Finance

The first known lithograph by Daumier dates from 1822. By 1873 he had produced nearly 4,000 lithographs, of which the most famous, undoubtedly, were the series 'Lawyers and Justice (1845-1848) and 'Doctors and Medicine.' In 1836, Daumier, whose political views had earned him a prison sentence, was forced, by the introduction of new press control laws, to abandon political satire. He turned instead to satirical comment on the bourgeoisie and Parisian life, and in this field his touch was at its vitriolic best. In 1848, after producing another thousand or so woodcut engravings, he turned his energies towards oil painting. Delacroix and Manet were amongst his admirers and he can be said to have paved he way for the Impressionists. Nevertheless, his caricatures undoubtedly constitute the main body of his work. Under his sure hand the characters of social and professional life of his day come through to us as alive as they were a century or more ago. His militant activities cut short by Napoleon the Third's 'coup d'etat' of December 1851, Daumier died, in 1879, almost blind and in straitened circumstances.