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Honoré-Victorin Daumier

The Past, the Present, the Future, plate 349

1834
Lithograph in black on off-white wove paper
21.6 × 19.5 cm (8.5 × 7.7 in)

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In the collection of Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago · as of July 2026

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Honoré Victorin Daumier’s caricatures of French King Louis-Philippe (reigned 1830–1848) used satire as a form of political critique. This print, published in the satirical journal La Caricature in 1834, depicts the king with an exaggerated pear-shaped head and three faces, reflecting the sharp shift in public opinion of the king—from inspiring hope at his coronation to inciting despair once his reign took hold. Daumier’s caricatures did get him into trouble: his earlier print, Gargantua , an even more biting critique of the monarchy’s gluttonous economic policies, resulted in the artist and his publisher Charles Philipon being sentenced to six months in jail in 1832.

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