Eros Gallery

2000: The Phillips Collection Washington D.C, another cast.
1999-2000: Galleries Nationales du Grand Palais Paris, France, another cast.
1999: National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, another cast.
1974-1975: Innaugral Exhibition, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, another cast.
1968: The French as Seen Through their Art 1600-1925' Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, University of Saskatchewan, Regina, Canada, another cast.

Anon, Daumier Exhibition Catalogue (Chemnitz: Kunst Sammlung, 2008), p.35, another cast.
Henri Loyrette et al, Daumier, 1808-1879 (Paris: Paris Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 1999), another cast.
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Les Parlementaires, portraits des célébrités du juste-milieu (Paris: 1993), pp. 5-95, another cast.
Harvard Arnsason, History of Modern Art, Third Edition, rev. Daniel Wheeler (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1986), another cast.
Galerie Sagot-Le Garrec, Daumier Sculpteur-Les bustes des Parlementaires (Paris: 1979), the plasters and other casts illustrated.
Jeanne L. Wasserman, Daumier Sculpture: A Critical and Comparative Study, exh. cat. (Cambridge, MA: Fogg Art Museum, 1969), pp. 44-160, another cast.

Daumier Register no: 9619

Although never formally trained as a sculptor, Honoré-Victorin Daumier's (1808-1879) bronze busts demonstrate not only his wit and command of caricature beyond his emotive lithographs but also a keen eye for portraiture. Daumier's artistic accomplishments were not restricted to sculpture and lithographs, with his skills extending to sketching, as well as painting in oils and watercolours. Yet his most recognised contributions to modern art remain his caricatures - especially those to which the Comte Auguste-Hilarion de Kératry (1769-1859) is connected.

From the 1820s, Daumier enjoyed decades-long patronage from the head of the publishing house, Le Maison Aubert, whose journals La Caricature (1830-1848) and Le Charivari (1832-1835) specialised in political and social commentary. Led by Charles Philipon and his brother-in-law, Gabriel Aubert, these journals supplied Daumier with an avenue through which he pilloried the social, political, and cultural elite of Paris in his often controversial lithographs. This working relationship diversified when, in 1832, Philipon commissioned Daumier to produce a series of caricature busts - of which thirty six of the original forty remain and are on display in the Musée d'Orsay's permanent collection. Whilst initially made of clay and worked on concurrently with his lithographs in the same series, these sculptures were later re-cast in bronze following their sale to the dealer-publisher Maurice Le Garrec in the early twentieth century. Through his 'gallery' of what were called The Célébrités of the Juste Milieu, Daumier lampooned both major politicians and minor figures of influence who were at the forefront of the July Monarchy of 1830, which resulted in a liberal constitutional monarchy under the reign of Louis-Philippe I the 'Citizen King'. This regime was viewed negatively, however, in that whilst it rested on a broadened social base the wealthy bourgeoisie dominated its core. Thus, for Daumier and his patron, Philipon, both of whom had been imprisoned under this new administration for slander and non-compliance of press laws respectively, the Celebrities series was an opportunity to challenge the status quo from a Republican and anti-bourgeoisie standpoint.

In these busts Daumier drew on phrenological theory and physiognomy to capture his subjects' likeness in ways that emphasised the depths of their expressions, thus also calling attention to the points of ridicule and satire. Such pseudoscientific theories were commonplace at this time and employed by the social and political elite to distinguish themselves from those they deemed subordinate - whether this be based on socioeconomic, gender, or racial grounds. These ideas were satirised acorss Daumier's busts and lithographs. An example of these techniques can be found in edtion no. 71, plate 143 of La Caricature and is titled 'Masques de 1831' (published 1832). This lithograph is recorded in the Daumier Register no: 42 and depicts fifteen expressive individual faces, one of whom is De Kératry.

De Kératry was a poet, novelist, literary and art critic, historian and politician. According to theories of phrenology and physiognomy, the distinctiveness of the subject's brow line and cheekbones equated to perceptiveness and language. Thus at face value, Daumier's depiction of De Kératry suggests an individual of perception and understanding, but as the eyes remain firmly closed in Daumier's representations of him we find his satirical portrayals stating otherwise. In his capacity as one of the liberal faction who founded the July Monarchy and in his subsequent role as a Councilor of State, Kératry's poitical position located him as an obvious figure for Daumier's satire.

This foundry edition, of which there are three, were the second additional series after the Barbedienne foundry works. They were marked LG (for Madame Le Garrec), Mme H. and C for Le Garrec's daughters Mme Henyer and Mme Cordier. They were stamped 'Cire perdue, C. Valsuani' and MLG for Maurice Le Garrec. The title of this sculpture is also known as Auguste-Hilarion, Comte de Kératry: 'The Obsequious One' (L'Obsequieux). This title can be attributed to Daumier's biographer, Maurice Gobin, who named all three of the Valsuani foundry editions.

Another cast of this work was gifted to the Smithsonian in 1966 by Joseph H. Hirshhorn.

A wood engraving of the heads of six men in La Charivari (December 1833, plate no. 368) includes a study of De Kératry. Daumier Register no: 5010.
The Daumier Register also records a likeness of De Kératry in a lithograph from La Caricature, no 150, plate 314 (September 1833). Daumier Register no: 70.

Daumier's work is on display around the world including in the Musée d'Orsay and the Louvre in Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C; The British Museum, London; and Kunsthaus in Zürich.