Honoré Daumier

The newly reopened International Newspaper Museum is proud to present
the exhibition “Newspapers in the Artistic Caricatures of Honoré
Daumier” from the German Newspaper Museum in Wadgassen. The exhibition
focuses on Daumier’s well known lithographs. Between 1831 and 1832, he
worked for the satirical journals  “La Caricature” and “Le Charivari”,
creating caricatures that achieved international renown. Daumier is
still considered to be the best known French caricaturist of the 19th
century. His life’s work comprises more than 4,000 lithographs and 1,000
wood engravings.

This exhibition presents a selection of works by Daumier on the subject
of newspapers and newspaper readers. The selection focuses on freedom of
the press and on everyday observations to do with newspapers. In his
caricatures, Daumier illustrates the difficult situation in which
freedom of the press found itself in the 19th century, with censorship
and stamp duty. The exhibition also throws light on the everyday
predicaments and problems of the newspaper business, e.g. the fight for
subscribers, the ever-increasing size of newspaper formats and the
various types of newspaper readers.