Along with Honoré Daumier, Gavarni was one of the great draughtsmen of the nineteenth century. Initially trained as a mathematician and mechanic, the self-taught Gavarni first experimented with lithography in 1824, and over the course of his lifetime produced approximately 2,700 plates. After relocating from Paris to London in 1847 to document the British elite, Gavarni was heavily influenced by the British watercolorists and their pervasive use of color, as seen here. Gavarni later rejected his aristocratic subjects in favor of members of the working class, perhaps an explanation for why The King of Laughter functions more as a caricature rather than a celebration of the nobility.