In the caricature of Gargantua Honoré Daumier depicts the extreme selfishness, cruelty, and invulnerability of King of the French Louis Philippe. The king is represented as a giant gourmand who is sitting in front of the National Assembly on a large throne, which is a giant commode and swallowing bags of coins which have been extracted from the poor by his ministers and which are carried by lilliputian personnages up a plank that stretches from the ground to his mouth. On the lower right, a crowd of his poverty-stricken subjects stands waiting miserably to turn over what little money they have. Above the heads of the poor tax-givers are windmills and buildings of a port. By the feet of the king are well-dressed men with their tricorn hats who are availing themselves of any coins which may fall from the servants' baskets as they stagger upwards towards the king's mouth. Under the king's throne papers fluttering down and it is Daumier's unsavory way of showing the king "issuing" documents granting honors and privileges to the chosen few below. On the left of the painting people, upper-middle-class collected their documents of privileges running off towards the National Assembly.
Gargantua's caricature was not well received by the authorities. Because of this drawing portraying the king in an unfavorable light, Honoré Daumier was imprisoned for six months at prison Saint Pelagic. After his release and return to society, the journal that published Daumier's works, La Caricature, soon after discontinued circulation, and Honoré Daumier continued to criticize the regime and society.
