Miss Etienne Joconde...Bécassine de Constitutionnel...

Honoré Daumier made a living from his satirical images of city types, casting a particularly critical eye on France’s social classes. His biting caricature parodies a member of the French aristocracy, and was published in the fiercely anti-monarchist weekly paper La Caricature. The sitter’s bloated face, outlandish dress, and 18th-century hairstyle represent both the excesses and perseverance of France’s nobility under the restored monarchy of Louis-Philippe. Daumier’s caricatures, which were favored by the middle class, helped to popularize a new form of art.