Delessert

Details

Honore Daumier (1808-1879)
Delessert
stamped with foundry mark and stamped 'MLG BRONZE' (on the back); numbered '21/25' (on the underside)
bronze with brown patina
Height: 7 in. (17.7 cm.)
Conceived circa 1830-1835; this bronze version cast circa 1929-1930

Literature

M. Gobin, Daumier Sculpteur, Geneva, 1952, p. 169, no. 2 (painted clay version illustrated).
J.L. Wasserman, Daumier Sculpture, A Critical and Comparative Study, Cambridge, 1969, pp. 60 and 61, nos. 6a and 6b (painted clay version and another cast illustrated).
Sagot-Le Garrec, Daumier Sculpteur, Paris, 1979, no. 2 (painted clay version illustrated).
P. Cabanne, M. Gregori and M. Leduc, Les Bustes des Parlementaires par Honoré Daumier, Lausanne, 1980, p. 26, no. 178 (painted clay version illustrated; detail illustrated in color, p. 27).
A. Le Normand-Romain, Daumier, Les Parlementaires, Portraits des Célébrites du Juste-Milieu, Paris, 1993, p. 30 (painted clay version illustrated in color, p. 31).

Lot Essay

The subjects of Daumier's caricature busts were monarchist supporters of Louis Philippe, the Duc d'Orléans, who assumed the French throne following the July Revolution of 1830 and ruled until his abdication in 1848. Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847) was one of France's first modern industrialists, a banker and philanthropist, who served as a member of the Chamber of Deputies for 25 years. Gustave Geffroy described Delessert as "the prefect with his soupçon of a nose and baboon's mouth" (in Daumier, Paris, 1901, p. 150). Wasserman noted that Daumier included Delessert in his group portrait lithograph Ventre législatif ("The Legislative Belly"), 1834; "Otherwise, Daumier had no further incentive for attacking this well-known man even if he did have extraordinary features" (op. cit., p. 62).

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