Clément-François-Victor-Gabriel Prunelle
Original title: Clément-François-Victor-Gabriel Prunelle, published in "La Caricature"
kurzbeschreibung
Published in 1833 in the satirical journal La Caricature, this lithograph by Honoré Daumier takes aim at the physician and politician Clément-François-Victor-Gabriel Prunelle. The black-and-white print comes from the milieu of the July Monarchy and counts among Daumier's early contributions to the Parisian paper.
Description
A bulky man stands upright, dressed in a long-sleeved dark coat and a white shirt. His corpulence is exaggerated to the point of comedy. A plain, dark background makes the figure stand out; the arrangement remains clear and centered. Bold strokes and hatching give texture to the fabric and structure to the silhouette.
Context
Created for La Caricature, a Parisian satirical paper of the 1830s that took a stand against the July Monarchy, the print brought Prunelle—physician and mayor of Lyon, later a deputy—into the crosshairs of political caricature. The drawing falls in a period of censorship and political tension.
Impact
The overstated girth lends the image a comic, almost grotesque quality, turning the sitter into a target of mockery. Because the arrangement remains so clear and centered, the figure inevitably commands attention, which sharpens the satirical effect.
Technique
The print was produced as a lithograph: a drawing with greasy chalk on stone served as the printing matrix. The gradations between black and white and the delicate shadings correspond to this process, which was common in nineteenth-century caricature.
AI-generated description text
Source: Metropolitan Museum of Art · Public Domain (CC0 1.0)