DAUMIER

daumier, honore (1808-1879), french caricaturist and painter, was born at marseilles. he showed in his earliest youth an irresistible inclination towards the artistic profession, which his father vainly tried to check by placing him first with a _huissier_, and subsequently with a bookseller. having mastered the technique of lithography, daumier started his artistic career by producing plates for music publishers, and illustrations for advertisements; these were followed by anonymous work for publishers, in which he followed the style of charlet and displayed considerable enthusiasm for the napoleonic legend. when, in the reign of louis philippe, philipon launched the comic journal, _la caricature_, daumier joined its staff, which included such powerful artists as deveria, raffet and grandville, and started upon his pictorial campaign of scathing satire upon the foibles of the bourgeoisie, the corruption of the law and the incompetence of a blundering government. his caricature of the king as "gargantua" led to daumier's imprisonment for six months at ste pelagie in 1832. the publication of _la caricature_ was discontinued soon after, but philipon provided a new field for daumier's activity when he founded the _charivari_. for this journal daumier produced his famous social caricatures, in which bourgeois society is held up to ridicule in the figure of robert macaire, the hero of a then popular melodrama. another series, "_l'histoire ancienne_," was directed against the pseudo-classicism which held the art of the period in fetters. in 1848 daumier embarked again on his political campaign, still in the service of _charivari_, which he left in 1860 and rejoined in 1864. in spite of his prodigious activity in the field of caricature--the list of daumier's lithographed plates compiled in 1904 numbers no fewer than 3958--he found time for flight in the higher sphere of painting. except for the searching truthfulness of his vision and the powerful directness of his brushwork, it would be difficult to recognize the creator of _robert macaire_, of _les bas bleus_, _les bohemiens de paris_, and the _masques_, in the paintings of "christ and his apostles" at the ryks museum in amsterdam, or in his "good samaritan," "don quixote and sancho panza," "christ mocked," or even in the sketches in the ionides collection at south kensington. but as a painter, daumier, one of the pioneers of naturalism, was before his time, and did not meet with success until in 1878, a year before his death, when m. durand-ruel collected his works for exhibition at his galleries and demonstrated the full range of the genius of the man who has been well called the michelangelo of caricature. at the time of this exhibition daumier, totally blind, was living in a cottage at valmondois, which was placed at his disposal by corot, and where he breathed his last in 1879. an important exhibition of his works was held at the ecole des beaux-arts in 1900. his life and art were made the subject of an important volume by arsene alexandre in 1888; see also gustave geffroy, _daumier_ (paris, libraire de l'art), and henri frantz and octave uzanne, _daumier and gavarni_ (london, _the studio_, 1904), with a large selection of the artist's work. daun (dhaun), leopold josef, count von (1705-1766), prince of thiano, austrian field marshal, was born at vienna on the 24th of september 1705. he was intended for the church, but his natural inclination for the army, in which his father and grandfather had been distinguished generals, proved irresistible. in 1718 he served in the campaign in sicily, in his father's regiment. he had already risen to the rank of colonel when he saw further active service in italy and on the rhine in the war of the polish succession (1734-35). he continued to add to his distinctions in the war against the turks (1737-39), in which he attained the rank of a general officer. in the war of the austrian succession (1740-42), daun, already a lieutenant field marshal in rank, distinguished himself by the careful leadership which was afterwards his greatest military quality. he was present at chotusitz and prague, and led the advanced guard of khevenhuller's army in the victorious danube campaign of 1743. field marshal traun, who succeeded khevenhuller in 1744, thought equally highly of daun, and entrusted him with the rearguard of the austrian army when it escaped from the french to attack frederick the great. he held important commands in the battles of hohenfriedberg and soor, and in the same year (1745) was promoted to the rank of _feldzeugmeister_. after this he served in the low countries, and was present at the battle of val. he was highly valued by maria theresa, who made him commandant of vienna and a knight of the golden fleece, and in 1754 he was elevated to the rank of field marshal. during the interval of peace that preceded the seven years' war he was engaged in carrying out an elaborate scheme for the reorganization of the austrian army; and it was chiefly through his instrumentality that the military academy was established at wiener-neustadt in 1751. he was not actively employed in the first campaigns of the war, but in 1757 he was placed at the head of the army which was raised to relieve prague. on the 18th of june 1757 daun defeated frederick for the first time in his career in the desperately fought battle of kolin (q.v.). in commemoration of this brilliant exploit the queen immediately instituted a military order bearing her name, of which daun was nominated first grand cross. the union of the relieving army with the forces of prince charles at prague reduced daun to the position of second in command, and as such he took part in the pursuit of the prussians and the victory of breslau. frederick now reappeared and won the most brilliant victory of the age at leuthen. daun was present on that field, but was not held accountable for the disaster, and when prince charles resigned his command, daun was appointed in his place. with the campaign of 1758 began the war of manoeuvre in which daun, if he missed, through over-caution, many opportunities of crushing the prussians, at least maintained a steady and cool resistance to the fiery strategy of frederick. in 1758 major-general loudon, acting under daun's instructions, forced the king to raise the siege of olmutz, and later in the same year daun himself surprised frederick at hochkirch and inflicted a severe defeat upon him (october 14th). in the following year the war of manoeuvre continued, and on the 20th and 21st of november he surrounded the entire corps of general finck at maxen, forcing the prussians to surrender. these successes were counterbalanced in the following year by the defeat of loudon at liegnitz, which was attributed to the dilatoriness of daun, and daun's own defeat in the great battle of torgau (q.v.). in this engagement daun was so severely wounded that he had to return to vienna to recruit. he continued to command until the end of the war, and afterwards worked with the greatest energy at the reorganization of the imperial forces. in 1762 he had been appointed president of the _hofkriegsrath_. he died on the 5th of february 1766. by the order of maria theresa a monument to his memory was erected in the church of the augustinians, with an inscription styling him the "saviour of her states." in 1888 the 56th regiment of austrian infantry was named after him. as a general daun has been reproached for the dilatoriness of his operations, but wariness was not misplaced in opposing a general like frederick, who was quick and unexpected in his movements beyond all precedent. less defence perhaps may be made for him on the score of inability to profit by a victory. see _der deutsche fabius cunctator, oder leben u. thaten s. e. des h. leopold reichsgrafen v. dhaun k.k.f.m._ (frankfort and leipzig, 1759-1760), and works dealing with the wars of the period.