078

  • Le Monsieur qui ricane (The Scoffer)

  • Terra cotta original dated ca. 1849-1850
  • Honoré Daumier (French 1808-1879)
  • Cast bronze
  • 25.4 x 7.9 x 7.9 cm., 10 x 3-1/8 x 3-1/8" with base
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase with Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Decker Lardner in Honor of Dr. Gary James Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2013.7

Essay by Aron Lees, Class of 2008 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Most of his contemporaries had no idea that Honoré Daumier was one of the first French artists to experiment with modern Realist sculpture. Famous as a lithographic illustrator for the popular press, his sculptures were a means by which he could study character and form, in three dimensions, which he would then translate onto the lithographic stone. Daumier's art as a whole does not have an elevated idealistic vision, unless this was defined as truth to nature in depicting the dignity of the common person, like many Realists of his time. His works appealed to the general eye-one did not need to have a background in the Classics, history, theology or literature to appreciate them. In an age dominated by the bourgeoisie, these elements appealed to an audience that preferred recognizable and easily comprehensible imagery.

Le Monsieur qui Rican (The Scoffer), was named by Maurice Gobin in his catalogue raisonné (Gobin 47) of Daumier sculpture. The movement of the coattails and hair are similar to the portrayal of the photographer in Daumier's lithograph of Nadar (77A). The artist used a rough-modeled realism to detail the character of his subject. With the elderly man's receding hairline and his modeled flesh, a finer sense of variation is revealed which gives him a distinctly caricatured face.

Dressed in outmoded frock coat and trousers streaming over his protruding belly, the subject projects a mix of self-confidence within a smug posture. The sweeping diagonals revitalize the figure. His gaze looks off into the distance, balanced by his shoulders and chest which propel him forward as he arches his back in a dramatic curve, thrusting his hands solidly into his pockets. This model clearly shows Daumier's skill in sculpting, delineating the figure's dramatic expression which has been described as Goyaesque (web gallery 62 and 63) (Wasserman 231). Although it may not be his most famous piece, Le Monsieur demonstrates Daumier's masterful ability to take a seemingly immobile model and make him tell a thousand words.