The history of the nineteenth century in caricature . dle, returned in his old age to the fray with all the vigorof the best days of La Caricature. Yet to those whose sympathies were with France duringthe struggle of 1870-71, there is a distinct pathos in thechange that is seen in the later work of Daumier—not a per-sonal pathos, but a pathos due to the changed condition of the CENTURY IN CARICATURE 215 country which it reflects. The old dauntless audacity, thetrenchant sarcasm, the mocking, light-hearted laughter, isgone. In its place is the haunting bitterness of an old man,under the burden
The history of the nineteenth century in caricature . dle, returned in his old age to the fray with all the vigorof the best days of La Caricature. Yet to those whose sympathies were with France duringthe struggle of 1870-71, there is a distinct pathos in thechange that is seen in the later work of Daumier—not a per-sonal pathos, but a pathos due to the changed condition of the CENTURY IN CARICATURE 215 country which it reflects. The old dauntless audacity, thetrenchant sarcasm, the mocking, light-hearted laughter, isgone. In its place is the haunting bitterness of an old man,under the burden of an impotent wrath—a man who, for allthat he dips his pencil in pure vitriol, cannot do justice to thenightmare visions that beset him. There is no better com-mentary upon the pervading feeling of helpless anger andoutraged national pride of this epoch than in these hauntingdesigns of Daumiers. They are the work of a man tremu-lous with feverish indignation, weird and ghastly conceptions,such as might have emanated from the caldron of Macbeths. Adieu ! No, au revoir. Visits must be returned. By Cham. witches. The backgrounds are filled in with solid black, likea funeral pall; and from out the darkness the features of Bis-marck, of Von Moltke, of William I., leer malevolently, dis-torted into hideous, ghoulish figures—vampires feasting upon 2l6 CENTURY IN CARICATURE the ruin they have wrought. French liberty, in the guise ofa wan, emaciated, despairing figure, the personification of awronged and outraged womanhood, haunts Daumiers one time she is standing, bound and gagged, between thegaping muzzles of two cannon marked, respectively, Paris,1851, and Sedan, 1870, and underneath the laconiclegend, Histoire dun Regne. Another cartoon shows France as a female Prometheusbound to the rock, her vitals being torn by the Germanic vul- ICNlRS.«tC»[S
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjecthistorymodern, bookye
