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| 1837 |
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| 1839 |
A Parisian newspaper called Le Charivari was the first to offer lithographic illustrations. Beginning in the 1830s, Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) produced almost 4,000 lithographs for Le Charivari. Hundreds of these caricatures are preserved today at the British Museum, including many hand-colored proofs. The majority are political cartoons of momentary topicality, but there are also scenes of social satire (such as the draper's shop, below) which even today are like tiny vivid flies preserved in amber.
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| 1841 |
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| 1846 |
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| 1851 |
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| 1854 |
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| 1865 |
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| 1866 |
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| 1866 |
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| 1867 |
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| 1867 |
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| 1870 |
The final images of a grim-faced street performers are not lithographs but drawings, produced by Daumier in the last phase of his life. His work for Le Charivari was first reduced and then eliminated altogether about this time, as novel styles and subjects overtook the old, and technology altered, and fashions shifted. In response to his own redundancy, Daumier repeatedly drew the figure of an aging street performer no longer able to attract an audience.
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| 1865-70 |
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| Honoré Daumier Street performers 1860s drawing, watercolor Metropolitan Museum of Art |
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| Honoré Daumier Saltimbanques changing places ca. 1865 drawing, watercolor Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |