La Caricature
Two incredibly rare complete editions of the most important illustrated satirical journal of the 19th century, with illustrations by Grandville, Daumier, Traviès, Monnier, Gavarni, Raffet, Cham, etc. Described as Nos. 99-100 of our Catalogue No. 83, Univers Romantique
La Caricature was the most important illustrated satirical journal of the 19th century, founded and directed by Charles Philipon. Published for only five years, from 4. November 1830–27. August 1835, this journal, featuring texts and illustrations from the most illustrious artists of its time, represents a crucial moment in not only the history of art, but in the history of France. The controversial political content of La Caricature expressed both explicit and implicit criticism of the king Louis-Philippe and his regime, and therefore faced oppression and censorship, which ultimately caused the popular journal to fold.
The journal featured texts by authors such as Balzac, Cler, Altaroche, Tatier, Desnoyers und Huart, but it was arguably the illustrated plates by Grandville, Daumier (including his most important work, Rue Transnonain), Traviès, Monnier, Gavarni, Raffet, Cham, and others that made the journal (in-)famous at the time of its publication.
Complete copies of the journal (which had become a collectors’ item even at the time of its publication) are exceedingly rare, and our collection includes two! Both are comprised of all the journal’s issues, the “dummy issue”, as well as the large supplement Lithographie mensuelle, together bound in eleven volumes.
The significance of La Caricature's imagery for the course of art history can hardly be overstated, because it was within the circle of its artists that "a new kind of artistic language emerged, which, in opposition to the official art of the Academy, was to be hugely influential on the development of a bourgeois realistic art in the second half of the 19th century."
530 lithograph plates, more than a fourth coloured by hand.
One copy from the collections of Villebœuf und Duché in pristine condition.
The second copy is uncut and includes two complete sets of plates, one on China paper and one on vélin.
For more information, please see Catalogue No. 83 Univers Romantique, available in the online shop