DAUMIER, H. - Encore perdu en Cour Royale .... et il se lamente comme s'il ne lui restait pas encore la Cour de Cassation!...

Second state (of 2), with text, number (34) erased. From "Les Gens de Justice", published " Chez Auber & Cie, Pl. de la Bourse,29".
Text below image :
- Encore perdu en Cour Royale .... et il se lamente comme s'il ne lui restait pas encore la Cour de Cassation!...
(Lost again in the Royal Court... and he complains as if he couldn't still appeal in the Upper Appeals Court...). It is assumed that Daumier portrayed himself in this print.

Around the mid-1840s Daumier started publishing his famous caricatures depicting members of the legal profession, known as 'Les Gens de Justice', a scathing satire about judges, defendants, attorneys and corrupt, greedy lawyers in general. A number of extremely rare albums appeared on white paper, covering 39 different legal themes, of which 37 had previously been published in the Charivari. It is said that Daumier's own experience as an employee in a bailiff's office during his youth may have influenced his rather negative attitude towards the legal profession.

Known chiefly as a political and social satirist, Honoré DAUMIER (1808-1879) used the printmaking process of lithography, still relatively new at the time, to contribute cartoons and caricatures to French news weeklies.