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Caricature History

Not long ago, when editorial cartoonists started to feature caricatures of well-known people and political figures just before the turn of the century, artists had limited space to tell their story. Due to this fact, they would emphasize the subjects face so the readers would recognize them. Next, they would add a body doing an activity which would illustrate what their subject was up to. The bodies were not as important as recognizing the face, so artists would reduce them.

Newspapers, magazines and flyers would use representations of the evil, rich, powerful and famous around the world as part of their editorial pages. This practice has remained a common artistic style to this day. Whether in an editorial cartoon or caricatures drawn for entertainment, caricatures tell the story of the subject. The caricature is one of the most common and universally recognized forms of art.

The Artist

It's common for professional artists to experiment with caricatures. However, only less than 1000 artists in the world consider drawing caricatures as their full-time profession. A caricature artist is also referred to as a caricaturist. Each artist uses their experience and training to develop their own unique style.

Caricature artists are not the same as a cartoon artist.  A cartoonist usually creates images of non-living subjects such as Popeyes or Daffy Duck. A caricature is an image showing the real-life subject in an exaggerated way. It is also common for an artist to simplify portions of the subject as well to help the viewer focus on the story of the caricature or the features the artist wants you to notice. This does not mean the small portions of the caricature don’t have meaning. Often clues or important story supporting information are found in the background of a caricature. Sometimes the exaggeration is in the small depiction of the subject.

There are similarities between caricature artists and cartoon artists, however, they are not the same. Some aspects of the art forms are interchangeable, yet there are distinct differences between the two. A cartoon is a simplified and whimsical illustration of a person, animal or scenery. A caricature is specifically an illustration of a real person drawn in an exaggerated method to play up the subjects unique features. Some may suggest that an artist can create a caricature of a car or animal. This is true for a cartoon, however, for it to be true for a caricature there needs to be a real-life point of reference for the caricature to work.

Artists use different mediums to create a caricature such as a pencil, marker, paint and digital technology. The word caricature certainly has morphed into new meaning within the English language. People use it to mean a likeness or exaggerate version of a person. Sometimes the word is used to mean over the top or a grotesque exaggeration.

And The Artist

It's amazing that one of the most difficult words for people to pronounce in the English is the word, caricature. Even more, people tend to misspell it too -- Caricature. They add letters which don’t belong, especially the “h”. The reason is because so many people associate this word, caricature with the word, character says Goofyfaces.com owner Robert Bauer. They want to combine the two words together, for both spellings as well the meaning. However, the two words have little in common. It’s like fingers on a chalkboard to a caricature artist when you say or spell the word like characature (wrong).

The word caricature is from the Italian word caricature which means a loaded portrait.  The term, caricature refers to a portrait and/or depiction of real people. The subjects are not fictional characters.

A caricature exaggerates prominent features of a subject or the essences of the subject while keeping enough information so the subject is still recognized. A well-done caricature looks more like you than you think! This is because it emphasizes the features which distinguish how you look in real-life. It’s common for caricatures to be drawn by giving the subject a small body with a big head. The appearance is often humorous, although, this was never the original intent.

Caricature History

When editorial cartoonists began to feature caricatures of celebrities and political figures before the turn of the 20th century, they had limited space to tell their story. Therefore, they would emphasize the person’s face or head so everyone would recognize them. Next, they would add a body performing some they of action which would illustrate what they were up to. The bodies tend not to be as important as the face, so artists would reduce the body size.

Print newspapers, magazines, and flyers used representations of the powerful, evil, rich and famous around the world as part of their editorial pages. This practice has remained to this day whether in editorial cartoons or caricatures drawn for social entertainment. The caricature is one of the most common and universally recognized art forms.

The caricature Artist

Many professional artists have experimented in caricature at one time. However, less than 1000 artists in the world consider caricature art as their full-time profession. A caricature artist is also referred to as a caricaturist. Each caricature artist uses their experience and training to develop their own style.

Caricature artists are not the same as a cartoon artist or cartoonist who usually creates images of non-living subjects such as Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny. A caricature is an image showing the subject in an exaggerated way. It is also common for the artist to simplify portions of the subject as well to help the viewer focus on the story of the caricature or the features the artist wants you to see. This does not mean the simple or small portions of the caricature don’t have meaning. Often clues or important supporting information can be found in the background of a caricature. Sometimes the exaggeration is in the small depiction.

Although there are similarities between a caricature artist and a cartoon artist, they are not the same type of artist. Some aspects of the art forms are interchangeable however there are distinct differences between the two. A cartoon is a simplified and whimsical illustration of a person, animal or scenery, often not a real person. A caricature is specifically an illustration of a real person drawn in an exaggerated style to play up their unique features. Some may suggest that an artist can create a caricature of a car or animal. This is true for a cartoon, however, for it to be true for a caricature there needs to be a real-life point of reference for a caricature.

Not all caricatures are drawn in a cartoon style. Some are extremely detailed, even life-like. Artist use different mediums to create a caricature such as a pencil, marker or paint. The word caricature certainly has morphed into new meaning within English. People use it to mean a likeness or an exaggerated version of a person.

When you hire a caricature artist. 

It is easy to hire caricature artists. There are a few good companies that represent artists from around the country. Generally, you hire the artist by the hour. The number of people at your event will determine how many hours you need to hire an artist or multiple artists. It’s common to hire more than one artist for large events. Although most attendees will take a moment to watch the artist create drawings, expect about 65 percent of your guests to sit for a caricature.

Part 2

A Caricature is among the most popular of art forms. It is common for comic representations of the rich and famous, the wicked, and the powerful often appear regularly in newspapers, magazines, and websites around the world. While the caricatures may contain different goals and agendas, the most striking feature of caricature is the distortion of subjects large head and small body. Whether the target is a Dictator, a successful lawyer, or the Queen of Spain, the caricaturist’s intention is to reveal a personality or characteristic through the comic exaggeration of their most visible feature, habit, or trait.

The modern art of caricature—that is, the art of drawing funny faces that are often distorted portraits of actual people—traces its roots back to Leonardo da Vinci, although we don’t know whether Leonardo’s “caricatures” of handsome and ugly heads were intended to be funny or were made as quasi-scientific investigations of the deforming effects of age, and of the forces that generate these deformations.

With their gross distortion and exaggerated postures, the portraits of people created by caricaturists seem far from the real human body. However, this appearance is deceptive. The study of caricature can reveal a lot about changing attitudes to body shape, diet, and sexual activity. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, caricaturists were much influenced by the work of G. B. Della Porter (De Humana Physiognomia, 1586); Charles Le Brun (Expression des Passions, 1698); and Johann Kaspar Lavater (Physiognomische Fragmente, 1775).

Caricature in the modern sense seems to have been created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. He was the first to create satirical drawings of recognizable people. Interestingly, he seems to have somehow turned this art into a backhanded form of flattery, similar to the celebrity roasts. Being important enough to satirize was proof of one’s importance.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the art form developed as a mix of the crude and obvious, and the obscure and arcane. At one level, it reduces the language of visual expression to its most uncultured elements, and certain devices seem to be repeated such as: processions of odd-looking people, exaggerated faces, people with animal-like faces, and bathroom humor.

At the same time, drawings often contain sophisticated puns and in-jokes, rooted in wordplay. Possibly the most famous examples of this are the series of lithographs by Honore Daumier from the early 1830s representing King Louis-Philippe in the form of a pear. The monarch’s face, with its large jowls, was pear-shaped, and so was his rotund body. In French slang, the word for pear, le poire, was also a colloquial term for “simpleton.” Also the king’s initials, L. P., could be read Le Poire.  The basic visual trope communicates its message clearly, even if we don’t grasp the wordplay. We can gather that the king was being ridiculed for being sluggish and obese. Often particularly with political satire, this sort of punning became almost deliberately arcane, rather in the fashion of the iconography of medieval saints.

The anthropomorphic caricature was hugely popular from the middle of the nineteenth century. These caricatures provide a record, of changing attitudes toward the human body, its form, and its functions. The practice of caricature also has connotations of moral judgment, as well as bodily excess or mere physical form.

Kenneth Rivers defined caricature as ‘the artistic use of deformation for satirical purposes’. Although the intention behind any given caricature can be defined broadly as satire or ridicule, the motivation behind a particular piece is varied. While the work of some caricaturists aims no higher than the exhibition of crude national or sexual stereotypes, many caricatures reveal more subtle ploys, and greater artistic and political aspirations. Indeed, the history of caricature has often been entwined with the history of censorship. The status of the caricaturist’s art might fairly be defined as a negotiation between a crude impulse to ridicule and a higher wish for change or reformation.

It’s precisely that delicate line between what’s funny and what’s not acceptable which makes caricature so powerful. The caricature has often been a mighty tool for fighting stupidity and injustice. However, it also has been used in the service of bigotry. A comprehensive history of caricature would more deeply explore some of the ways that the art form has a wicked side and connects with the dark corners of the soul.