Born in Marseilles, France 1808, Daumier was one of the greatest graphic artists of the Nineteenth century. During his lifetime he was widely known as a caricaturist, satirising politicians, lawyers and the bourgeois in particular. The impact of his work led to his imprisonment at one point, but this did not diminish his artistic attacks on the wealthy. He developed a simple and powerful style, using the rough yet evocative lines which can be seen in the thick, fluid brushwork of ‘Don Quixote’. His first solo show, organised by friends, took place when he lived in poverty and was almost blind, one year before his death in Valmondois, France 1879.
