Alexandre Dupendant French General Caricature

An original c.1870 watercolour painting – Alexandre Dupendant, French General of the Second Empire Caricature.

A wonderful large work in watercolour by the French caricaturist and satirical illustrator—and Parisian bohemian—Alexandre Dupendant (1833–1884).

The subject shows a grotesquely rotund French general of Napoleon III's Second Empire, sporting the white Légion d'honneur and smoking a cigar.

This is one of a small group of paintings by Alexandre Dupendant that we have for sale.

Working during the Paris Commune, Dupendant often painted political or military figures and scenes, including episodes from the Franco-German War of 1870. His work is likened to the caricatural style of Honoré Daumier (1808–1879).

Biographical record of Dupendant is scant. He worked as a lithographer in Paris but is said to have been better known as a local bohemian, an ardent Communard and a cartoonist. He was apparently a regular at a bar in the Latin Quarter called Père Lunette, which notoriously served the lowest in society alongside socialists and anarchists, and where the walls were famously adorned with cartoons and caricatures.

In watercolour with graphite underdrawing. On green-grey paper.