The Discovery of Graffiti

Abstract

The amusing caricature published in 1833 (Fig. 1) showing three French children being scolded for drawing on a wall is a particularly intriguing document concerning the discovery of graffiti in the early 19th century.1 We notice three associated elements: the caricature itself, the graffiti on the wall, and the naïve, primitive drawing style of the children. When the reader of the satirical periodical Caricature saw this image he readily recognized its political meaning: the pear-faces represented Louis-Philippe, the Bourbon King installed in France following the 1830 revolution, whose corpulence and physiognomy suggested the shape of the pear, and whose dullness was further hinted at by the slang meaning of poire, a dummy or dope.2 The cartoonist wanted to make the point that even children responded to the ridiculousness of the King and mocked him in their graffiti.

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