The "Pear Movement" in Caricatures of the French Revolution of July

 
Caricature is one of the most important artistic methods in expressing political and social criticism and protest in the language of satire and humor. Political cartoons became very popular in the July Revolution (1830) and during the reign of King Louis-Philippe of France due to his corruption and inefficiency, as well as pressure and opposition to freedom of expression and the publication of critical newspapers. The caricaturists of this period protested against the actions of the king and the courtiers by the leadership of Charles Philipon and with publishing satirical cartoons. The King's representation became a pear as an artistic movement and a symbol of royal corruption. The purpose of this article is to examine the Pear Art Movement in French cartoons and periodicals during the reign of Louis-Philippe.
The question is that what are the reasons for the pear movement during the reign of Louis-Philippe? What factors led to the popularity of these cartoons in the French society of that day? Political pressures on artists and critics forced cartoonists to use metaphors and allegories; The Louis-Philippe pear-shaped face also contributed greatly to this symbolism. At the same time, pear was naive in the eyes of the public. This article is descriptive and somewhat analytical. The July Revolution was the second French Revolution since the First Revolution (1789). Following this event, Louis Philip I, at the head of the new monarchy known as the "July Kingdom", succeeded the second period of the restoration of the monarchy and became king. This revolution took place over three days -Tuesday 27, Wednesday 28 and Thursday 29 July 1830-and became known as the "Three glorious Days".
Louis Philippe failed to live up to his promise to uphold the constitution and the constitutional monarchy and freedom of expression (which was the product of the First Revolution and the July Revolution). He was plagued by corruption, courtiers, and social and political problems caused by his style of governing. Intense and widespread pressures on the free press, critical writers and artists increased day by day and angered them. Cartoonists also began to ridicule images, sometimes with short texts. One of the most important of these cartoonists to oppose Louis and his courtiers was Charles Philipon (1800-1861), who sparked a wave of protests, following in the footsteps of Louis-Philippe in the form of a pear. It aroused itself and sparked a protest movement that could be referred to as the "Pear Movement."
Philipon assembled a group of skilled artists who worked mostly for the two publications, and through them attacked the king and the system of government with increasing violence. La Caricature made an unprecedented outcry against Louis Philippe and was arrested more than a dozen times. Louis-Philippe's cruel portrayal of a pear-which he found very unpleasant-was begun by Charles Philipon in 1831. As a defense, in the court that accused him of violating the king's status, he drew figures that showed how the king's head rotates in a process of transformation and in several steps, approaching in the shape of a pear. This work was one of the most influential political physiognomic cartoons depicting the character of the king from the Philipon point of view. From then on, the king was constantly portrayed in French liberal magazines as a pear and then just like the fruit itself. The role of pear was used by caricaturists and cartoonists of that time, and on top of all that, the latter benefited greatly from the role of pear. Daumier was preparing pear-shaped cartoon designs for lithography at a time when he was in prison with Philipon for Gargantua (another Louis-Philippe caricature).
Daumier drew the physiognomic designs of Louis-Philippe, imitating and imitating Philipon. The plan, made in the courtroom in 1831, was published three years later, in 1834, in the journal Le Charivari. The pear shape never gave up on the monarchy and became a well-known symbol of the repressive government of the French Republicans and Liberals. The corruption of the reign of Louis Philippe and his associates is again depicted in the cartoon of Auguste Bouquet, using pears, the king's relatives and supporters, like pears, are plundering the nation's wealth and budget, and their corruption is causing the fruit to rot and, as a result, France to disintegrate. This was a clear and protesting statement of the situation in France, presented by Auguste Bouquet.
Undoubtedly, the most famous cartoon of the physiognomy of a pear is a cartoon entitled "Past, Present, Future" by Honoré Daumier, which depicts the pear head of Louis Philippe in a three-dimensional manner, reminiscent of the tangled hair above his head. In a lithographic cartoon, Daumier ridiculed conservative members of the House of Legislatives-all of who are recognizable by their contemporaries-for their arrogance and corruption, and portrayed them as bloated and naughty. The Legislative Belly (Le Ventre Legislatif), marks the culmination of the dramatic power of the collection of political portraits of the July monarchy, and with its mastery of grading from black to white, it is one of the masterpieces of the Second Lithography. For each of the characters he has drawn in this cartoon, Daumier has already made a number of cartoons (with a physiognomic point of view), each of which has its own concept and subject of satire and criticism. Daumier also depicts the Cariophysiognomic figures of the other statesmen present at the legislature's belly meeting, according to the responsibilities, behaviors and physiques of their faces. The Grimaces collection, with its physiognomic cartoon faces depicted by Louis Leopold Boyle (1745-1845) from 1823 to 1828, undoubtedly influenced Daumier to design the cartoon of the 1831 masks, which is one of the second physiognomic masterpieces, in which it shows the faces of 15 people by showing their inner characters.
In France, censorship of images was always more severe than censorship of text, because images were thought to be more attractive to the lower classes of society, whose literacy levels were limited. During the re-establishment of the Bourbons, or the return of the Bourbons to the French monarchy, artists created a language full of symbols and metaphors to escape censorship. This led cartoonists to ridicule Louis-Philippe politically and critically in the periodicals of the period, especially La Caricature and Le Charivari. Grandville and Forest published the cartoon "Resurrection of Censorship," a satirical political work, under intense new censorship and published it in La Caricature to protest press censorship. The use of pear characters Due to the censorship and punishments that were intended for cartoonists and their publishing newspapers, it became a real pear that contained symbols of the characters desired by the artist. Thus, it was a way to escape punishment and deny the issue. One of the most significant of these caricatures is a cartoon entitled "Acceptance," which was published as a purely political satire by Grandville and Forest on November 15, 1832, in La Caricature, depicting court figures in the form of pears. Complete depict with specific symbols. Strict censorship necessitated the use of symbols and metaphors: the shape of Louis-Philippe's head was physiognomically similar to a pear, so in the beginning it was a pear that had the features of Louis's face; but then, by announcing the punishment for attributing it to the king, it turned into a whole pear. At the end of this physiognomic transformation of the face, the pear itself had become a symbol of Louis Philippe, a perfectly metaphorical and understandable expression for the people and the libertarians. The process of these artistic protests and the use of pears by a significant number of cartoonists created a movement that can be called the "Pear Movement". These publications were distributed to a good level of the society, and the publication of pear cartoons caused them to be depicted everywhere, and the pear shape was painted on the walls of Paris by people and even children for a period. The "Pear Movement" also had a significant impact on the subsequent socio-political developments in France.