© Great Caricatures
2002

Each week, four to six lithographic stones were delivered to Daumier's studio. They were numbered consecutive so that he could track the number of prints he produced for Le Charivari.

Daumier worked on several stones simultaneously, drawing from memory and according to some accounts, without preliminary sketches. He usually completed his caricatures in a single sitting over the course of several hours. When a set of drawings was complete, he would have an errand boy return the stones to the printer on a scheduled day.

Once the stones arrived at Aubert & Co. (the publisher of Le Charivari and Daumier's lithographs), Daumier's work underwent a complex process of revision and approval before publication.

The printer would ink the stone and run off one or two (and in rare exceptions, three) proofs without any text. One of these proofs would be sent by errand boy to Daumier for approval. If he was not satisfied, the stone was erased or -- on rare occasions -- Daumier would either have the stone brought back or he would would go to the printer's to make changes.

Once Daumier approved the print, it became the proof of the first state (i.e., the first phase of the engraver's work). Out of the 4,000 lithographs Daumier produced, only a handful of these proofs exist today. The ones that survive are folded in eight, so that the errand boy could fit it in his pocket and keep his hands free.

legends

All lithographs of the time included a legend, but this was not necessarily Daumier's choice. He once said, "The caption is useless ... if my drawing means nothing to you, then it must be bad; the legend will not make it any better. If my drawing is good, you will be perfectly able to understand it yourselves, so what is the use of the legend?"

The legend might be written by Daumier, or it would be written by Charles Philipon, the founder and editor of Le Charivari. The journalists who worked for Philipon became involved in writing the text. They were paid eight francs for a legend. Sometimes the text was the result of a collaborative effort. The process was documented by hand-written notes scribbled in the margins of the proofs. In some cases, a first draft written in one hand was crossed out and rewritten by another.

Sometimes Daumier would write an idea for a caption on the proof. Other times the authors had only the picture to work with. While Daumier might have felt his images could stand alone, the editors didn't always agree. One frantically scrawled, "I have written Daumier to send you the idea for this one, if he has so much as an idea!" and another wrote, "What the devil does one write for this picture?" In these situations, and in situations where Daumier's suggestion was overruled, the editors would invent a story for the image, associating it with a current news event or a standard comedic theme.

Proof of the Second State

Once the legend received final approval, the proof went back to the printer where a typographer rendered the text by hand on the stone. Each character was drawn in reverse so that it would appear correctly on the print. The title of the series or plate was also added, along with the number, the printer's name, and the publisher's name and address.

Once the typographer's work was completed, one or two (and on rare occasions three) additional proofs were run off on finer paper. These represented the proof of the second state.

A person in authority who worked at the printer's would endorse the print with: "Proof certified as corresponding to the printing" followed by a signature and date. This proof was sent to the censor's office for authorization.

The Censor's Authorization

The official who authorized publication of the lithograph acted as a delegate of the Minister of the Interior or of the Prefect.

If the censor approved the print, the printer would be held responsible for ensuring that all copies were identical to the proof submitted. Any change had to be resubmitted to the censor.

The decision came in the form of a single word written directly on the proof. "Yes" meant that it was authorized for publication. "No" or "Rejected" meant it was not approved (i.e., it was censored). When this proof was returned to the printer, it was kept by the printer in case the government later brought legal proceedings against the printer. If the censor did not authorize publication, nothing remains of the work except for the proofs of the first two states. If the caricature was approved, it could go on to publication.

Print Runs

Prints were published in different editions. Before the stone was used for the press run of Le Charivari, Aubert & Co. ran off high quality prints on white paper that was thick and white or ivory. These prints are called sur blanc ("on blank") and were carefully preserved. They have no text on the reverse side.

The sur blanc prints were sold separately or, when Daumier completed a series, bound and issued as an album. The number of copies ranged from 20 to 150, based on presubscriptions and anticipated sales. If the subject matter of the lithograph was based on an important political event, the print run was often higher. Artists proofs were also printed with extreme care for Daumier and his friends on white or pale pink vellum.

These pre-publication prints are the finest examples of Daumier's lithographic work. As described by Jean Laran curator of the fine print department of the National Library of France, "In these one indeed sees the stone in all its beauty, strength and delicacy."

Finally, the caricature was printed for Le Charivari, which appeared seven days a week. Each edition consisted of one to three thousand copies. Less expensive paper was used and two printing technologies were applied: Daumier's caricature was done as a lithograph and the text on the opposite side was printed using letterpress. Each page required two press runs. Daumier's original image was transferred from the master stone to subsidiary stones so that multiple copies could be printed simultaneously on presses that ran day and night.

Miscellaneous Notes:

But the total number of prints is only one aspect of the collection. Each of Daumier's lithographs exist in two or three states: the image before the text is added (avant la lettre); the image after the text is added (sur blanc) and if there are any subsequent changes to the text, it is treated as a new state. One Daumier lithograph went through a total of seven states before it was finished ¹.

Within the states there are variations that include artist proofs; printer's proofs; prints with handwritten drafts of the text; prints that are authorized or rejected by the censor; limited edition sur blanc prints; and prints from the Le Charivari press run with letterpress on the reverse. The significance and rarity of these variations ultimately define the quality and value of a collection (for more information, read Daumier's Print States & Legends).

"When he reached artistic maturity, Daumier worked in his studio on several lithographic stones simultaneously. He delivered them to the printer on a set day of the week -- in 1849, for instance, on a Monday. The delivery day was always a rush, as the stones had to be completely finished. In fact Daumier, like Toulouse-Lautrec and Dunoyer de Segonzac, gnerally did not work in stages. The completion of a drawing on stone took him several hours. In a letter to his wife Didine on 5 September 1849 he wrote: "I am going to spend the day making a stone." The lithographs that appeared in September 1849 -- one of which might have been that of 5 September -- are of medium size, and the drawings would not have demanded an exceptional amount of work or have taken longer than usual. This gives us an idea of the time it took him to finish a lithograph."

Daumier by Roger Passeron
Rizzoli, 1979, 1981

"In his studio Daumier kept several stones ready. Frome time to time he would make a few strokes on one or another of them, using a stub of old grease crayon so short that it seemed almost like an extension of his fingers. Often he would seem to be doing nothing whatever. As he "loafed," his single sign of abstraction and concentration was his soft humming of music hall tunes. Then, suddenly, he would go to one of the bare stones and in a short time draw a completely composed and carefully considered picture, all the preliminary selections and rejections of early drafts having taken place in his head."

Daumier and His World by Howard P. Vincent
Northwestern University Press, 1968

"Like a Chinese painter, Daumier must have had to sit still until the clearing of his inner eye discharged an accumulated energy into a few lines flowing deliberate and free."

"Lithographs" by A. Hyatt Major
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, VII (1948)

Sources

Daumier by Roger Passeron
Rizzoli, 1979, 1981

Daumier and His World by Howard P. Vincent
Northwestern University Press, 1968

The Charged Image: French Lithographic Caricature 1816-1848 by Beatrice Farwell
Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1989

Daumier and the University: Teachers and Students by Raymond Picard
Boston Book and Art; 1970

H. Daumier: L'Homme et L'Oeuvre by Arsene Alexandre
H. Laurens, Paris, 1888