Degas, Caricature and Modernity: Daumier, Gavarni, Keene

Edgas Degas (1834–1917) possessed what his friend Walter Sickert (1860–1942) described as ‘a rollicking and somewhat bear-like sense of fun’. This exhibition looks at three caricaturists and satirists whose work Degas admired and collected in large numbers: Honoré Daumier (1808–79), Paul Gavarni (1804–66) and Charles Keene (1823–91). Their everyday subjects captured a vivid impression of the nineteenth century, referred to by Charles Baudelaire as ‘the epic and heroic quality of modern life’, which tallied with Degas and his contemporaries in their interest in modernity.