Laugh Lines: Caricaturing Painting in Nineteenth-Century France

By Julia Langbein

Laugh Lines: Caricaturing Painting in Nineteenth-Century France is the first major study of Salon caricature, a kind of graphic art criticism in which press artists drew comic versions of contemporary painting and sculpture for publication in widely consumed journals and albums. Salon caricature began with a few tentative lithographs in the 1840s and within a few decades, no Parisian exhibition could open without appearing in warped, incisive, and hilarious miniature in the pages of the illustrated press.

This broad survey of Salon caricature examines little-known graphic artists and unpublished amateurs alongside major figures like douard Manet, puts anonymous jokesters in dialogue with the essays of Baudelaire, and holds up the material qualities of a 10-centime album to the most ambitious painting of the 19th-century. This archival study unearths colorful caricatures that have not been reproduced until now, drawing back the curtain on a robust culture of comedy around fine art and its reception in 19th-century France.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1350186856
• ISBN13: 9781350186859
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.2"