Comte Horace Sébastiani

The work is a lithograph, a printmaking process that allowed Daumier to produce multiple copies quickly for periodicals. He manipulates line and shading to accentuate the ill‑fitting coat and tight trousers, a visual convention in early‑19th‑century political cartoons that emphasizes the subject’s perceived pretensions.

Originally published in one of Daumier’s regular outlets for political satire, such as *La Caricature* or *Le Charivari*, the print circulated among a readership attuned to republican criticism of the Restoration regime. Subsequent collections have preserved it as part of the broader corpus of Daumier’s socially engaged prints.

The lithograph emerges from a period of intense political tension in France, when the restored monarchy faced opposition from republican and liberal factions. Daumier’s work, including this portrait of Sébastiani, functioned as visual commentary, contributing to public debate through the accessible medium of mass‑produced prints.