Abstract:
Two men hunting in their own garden try to find a sparrow to shoot. One man, however, states that he is reluctant to shoot it as it is the last sparrow in the garden. Daumier’s interest in hunting and fishing was a consequence of press censorship laws in 1835, which limited political engagement of caricaturists working for the free press. At the same time, in 1830 hunting legally ceased to be the prerogative of the aristocratic classes. Parisian bourgeoisie immediately took to the new fancy and engaged in hunting around the forests and countryside of Paris. A new “fashion” was born and members of the Parisian middle class developed a hitherto unknown snobbism and passion for this sport. Deyeux even wrote a poem called “La Chassomanie”. By 1860, some 155’000 hunting licenses had been issued, while one estimated that some 450’000 poachers were actively involved in hunting and fishing. While in the beginning of 1836 some 6’000 hunters were caught hunting without a license, this number increased substantially to 21’000 hunters fined for poaching in 1860.
