L'Âge d'or de la caricature anglaise

Political caricature as we know it appeared in England at the end of the 18th century. In 40 years, a genuine révolution took place in the field of information by the image. This new means of expression benefitted front both material conditions favorable to its growth and historié conditions conducive to the development of impasioned polemics. It also enjoyed an amazing freedom front censorship which gave it its daring and tone which still surprises. Caricature had a twofold objective : to inform and to deform. The artists of that period discovered rules of a new language which combined the constraints of efficient communication and those of aesthetics. This language which appeals to reason, also plays widely on certain impulses and repulsions. Many taboos are violated and our contemporaries, who might be blasé, still hâve instinctive reactions to images which concern their unconscious mind. Without the masters of that golden âge of caricature, this language might not be the same.