Arrested on 30 August 1830 before his parents' eyes, he served six months in prison for “Gargantua”, in which Louis-Philippe swallowed the State's budgets. At Le Charivari he then sketched Guizot, Thiers and the whole bourgeoisie of the July Monarchy. He died almost blind, and has for his epitaph: “People, here lies Daumier”.
The story
Honoré Victorin Daumier was born at Marseille on 26 February 1808, to a father who was a poet and a glazier and who moved the family to Paris. A bookshop clerk, he drew in his spare hours and published his first plates under the pen name Rogelin.
On 30 August 1832 he was arrested in front of his parents, whose only support he was, and sentenced to six months in prison for “Gargantua”: the print has Louis-Philippe swallowing the budgets of the state. The caricature had gone home.
At La Caricature and then Le Charivari he watched the king's slightest gesture, caught Guizot and Thiers, and between 1830 and 1852 built a panorama of the middle class under the July Monarchy — the Bourgeois, the Men of Law, Robert Macaire, the Bluestockings, the Theatre. Anyone who wants to understand the period goes through his plates.
He came back into full command of his means around 1860, but his sight was failing. Corot, who lies two rows below him in the same Division, gave him a house at Valmondois for his old age.
He died there in 1879. The prefect granted him a free plot by order of 27 February 1879. On the stone in Division 24, one sentence speaks straight to the visitor: ‘Peuple, ci-gît Daumier, l'homme de bien, le grand artiste et le grand citoyen’ — people, here lies Daumier, the good man, the great artist and the great citizen.
The grave
The plot was granted free of charge by prefectoral order of 27 February 1879, a few days after the caricaturist's death — a death without fortune, almost blind, in a borrowed house. The inscription gives the civil status, “Daumier, Honoré Victorin, born in Marseille in 1808, died at Valmondois in 1879”, then that of his wife Marie Alexandrine Dassy, who died at L'Isle-Adam in 1895. The last line changes register and addresses the passer-by: “People, here lies Daumier, the good man, the great artist and the great citizen.” Few epitaphs in the cemetery call out like this to the one who reads them.
On site, do not miss
The last line of the inscription, which calls out to the reader: “People, here lies Daumier, the good man, the great artist and the great citizen”.
Visitors' questions
Where is Honoré Daumier's grave?
In Division 24, Chemin Laplace, second row, in the old part of the cemetery. The grave of Camille Corot, who had given him a house for his old age, lies two rows further down in the same alley.
Camille CorotWhat is engraved on his grave?
An epitaph that speaks directly to the passer-by: “Peuple, ci-gît Daumier, l'homme de bien, le grand artiste et le grand citoyen” — people, here lies Daumier, the good man, the great artist and the great citizen. His wife, who died at L'Isle-Adam in 1895, is named above him.
Auguste BlanquiWhy did he go to prison?
For “Gargantua”, a caricature in which Louis-Philippe swallows the State's budgets. Arrested on 30 August 1830 in front of his parents, whose sole support he was, he was sentenced to six months' imprisonment.
Charles AmourouxDid he pay for his plot?
No: it was granted to him free of charge by prefectoral order of 27 February 1879, a few days after his death. The case is not unique at Père-Lachaise — Charles Amouroux and Paul Baudry were granted the same.
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