Honoré Victorin Daumier (French, 1808-1879)

The subject of the present lot is Scapin the Schemer, the protagonist of the  three-act comedy of intrigue Les Fourberies de Scapin (1671) by the French playwright Molière. The character Scapin finds its origins in the Commedia dell ‘Arte where he was one of the comic servants. He was especially noted for his cowardice (the Italian scappare means "to flee") taking flight at the first sign of conflict. Scapin constantly lies and tricks people to get ahead. He is an arrogant, pompous man who acts as if nothing were impossible for him. However, he is also a diplomatic genius. He manages to play the other characters off of each other very easily, and yet manages to keep his overall goal in sight.

Great parallels can be drawn with other nefarious characters that Daumier often chose to depict in his work. His lawyers, Daumier's chief bêtes noires, often provided the subject matter for his paintings that he is most commonly associated with in the public imagination. Not unlike the literary character of Scapin, he saw  lawyers as 'men paid to simulate emotion and pious devotion to justice, but actually smug and insensitive. They arouse an antipathy in him that goes beyond mere caricature' (R. Ray, Honoré Daumier, London, 1966, p. 66).