Jean-Auguste Chevandier de Valdrome (1781-1878), Deputy and Peer of France 1833

This small painted plaster sculpture of Jean-Auguste Chevandier de Valdrome was made by Honoré Daumier, a master of caricature, in 19th-century France. Daumier lived through the 1830 revolution, and he was committed to picturing the political and social realities of France. He modeled a series of portrait-charges of members of the National Assembly; this is one of them. It’s hard not to read the work through the lens of class critique. Daumier gives us an almost brutal honesty in the downturned mouth and the heavy brow. Daumier made these sculptures as studies for his lithographs, a medium that allowed for mass distribution. Through these prints, Daumier ensured that his critical observations reached a broad audience, challenging the status quo and inviting a wider public to question the powerful figures shaping their society. In this, Daumier used his art to participate in the political discourse of his time, and to hold power accountable.