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Finding aid for the Donald Goldberg collection of French caricature, 1830-1853
P890001
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Title: Donald Goldberg collection of French caricature
Date (inclusive): 1830-1853
Number: P890001
Creator/Collector:
Goldberg, Donald
Physical Description:
393.0 prints
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, California, 90049-1688
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: A collection, assembled by Donald Goldberg, comprised entirely of 19th century French lithographs designed by two artists
known by their pseudonyms, Paul Gavarni and Grandville, and featuring political and social caricature.
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Language: Collection material is in
French
This collection is comprised entirely of 19th century French lithographs designed by two artists known by their pseudonyms,
Paul Gavarni and Grandville. Guillaume Sulpice Chevalier was born in Paris on 13 January, 1804. He began to study drawing
with Professor Leblanc at the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers in 1818, and sold his first lithograph for publication in
1824. In 1829 he adopted the name Paul Gavarni after a town in the Pyrenees. The following year he turned to fashion illustration
and later designed theatrical costumes and carnival disguises. Beginning in 1837 he drew lithographs for Charles Philipon's
journals
Le Charivari and
La Caricature. Gavarni's images are observations of social manners and customs (and as such are technically caricature only by association).
He differed from Philipon's more famous discovery, Honoré Daumier, whose scathing political and social caricature offended
many, particularly the government censors. Gavarni abandoned lithography entirely following the death of his young son in
1857, and gradually withdrew from society. He died in obscurity in 1866.
Jean-Ignace-Isidore Gérard was born at Nancy in 1803. His pseudonym was borrowed from his paternal grandparents, who worked
as comedian under the names Monsieur and Madame Grandville ("Big City"). He began his career as a miniature painter, studying
first with his father and then with Hippolyte Le Comte, but by 1820 had abandoned this medium and devoted himself to lithography
and illustration. As an increasing dislike for the messy work of lithography took hold, he began to work with collaborators
who copied his drawings onto the lithographic stone. In his own time he was considered first a political caricaturist, and
second an illustrator of children's works. In both types of drawings he metamorphosed humans and animals, revealing at the
same time our animalistic nature and our tendency to anthropomorphize. All the lithographs by Grandville in this collection
are political caricatures published in
La Caricature, except the first, a social caricature which features the infamous character M. Mayeux, and the last, which was published
on subcription only. Following the death of his three children, and of his wife of nine years in 1842, Grandville himself
died in 1847 in an asylum at Vanves near Paris.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
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Library Rights and Reproductions .
Donald Goldberg Collection of French Caricature, 1830-1853, Getty Research Institute, Research Library, Accession no. P890001.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifap890001
Acquired in 1989.
The Donald Goldberg collection originally included reference books, as well as complete sets of periodicals such as
La Lune and
Le Mirliton. These publications are now part of the Getty Research Institute Library. The caricature prints were transferred to Special
Collections ca. 1996. The cataloguing of the print collection was completed on Jun 30, 1997 by Brian Parshall who wrote this
finding aid.
Note on Cataloging:
The standard reference for works by Gavarni is Armelhault (pseudonym for Mahérault) and Bocher,
L'Oeuvre de Gavarni (Paris: Librarie des bibliophiles, 1873) and cited as A & B; for works by Grandville see Gottfried Sello,
Grandville: Das Gesamte Werk. 2 vols. (Munich: Rogner u. Bernard, 1969) cited as Sello. Both have been used in cataloging this collection and are cited
in the entries.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection, assembled by Donald Goldberg, contains nineteenth century French lithographs by two artists known by their
pseudonyms, Paul Gavarni (1804-1866) and Grandville (1803-1847), with examples of political and social caricature by each.
The majority are from publisher Charles Philipon's journals
La Caricature, founded in 1830 during the so-called July Monarchy of Louis-Philippe, and
Le Charivari, founded in 1832.
The collection is organized in 2 series:
Series I. Works by Gavarni;
Series II. Works by Grandville
Caricature--19th century--France
Paris (France)--Social life and customs
Prints--France--19th century
Proofs before letters--France--19th century
Gavarni, Paul, 1804-1866
Goldberg, Donald
Grandville, J. J., 1803-1847