Marquet was best known for his uncompromising political cartoons, particularly during the years he worked for The Worker newspaper, but his output also included social satire and comic strips intended for child readers.

Marquet's dedication to unionism and democratic socialist values was reflected in much of his work (occasionally compromised in line with the more conservative views of his employers).

[1][2][3] Claude's father died suddenly in November 1872, aged 30, "of bronchitis after an exceedingly brief illness", leaving a widow and three young children.

An early indication of Marquet's developing artistic talent was "the famous skull and crossbones picture he produced for the comical 'wake' the Broken Hill 'Argus' staff held on the corpse of the defunct morning paper".

[14] Throughout his adult life Marquet considered himself to be a socialist, but he rejected revolutionary means to achieve that end in favour of the democratic process.

[12] An art-work by Marquet, titled 'Summer Afternoon', was included in the annual South Australian Society of Arts Exhibition in Adelaide, which opened in June 1896.

[17][18] After the death of William H. Jeffery in December 1896, who had been the managing printer of The Advertiser newspaper for the previous 22 years, funds were raised amongst his fellow employees to erect a headstone on his grave at the West Terrace Cemetery.

The headstone, of Italian marble on a granite base and erected in September 1897, was designed by Marquet and incorporated elements of "the material used in the printers' craft".

[12] The Quiz issue of 7 June 1900 included a special supplement featuring a portrait of Lord Roberts which was reproduced by color photography from a watercolour painting by Marquet.

Lord Roberts, as commander of the British forces in the Second Boer War, had been a celebrated figure in the news after a series of early victories in South Africa.

[24] Marquet's sympathetic portrait of Roberts could be compared to the artist's more cynical cartoon in the same issue of Quiz, 'John Bull Gathers in the Fruits of Victory'.

Considering that Marquet had regular cartoons published in the Sydney-based journals The Bulletin and The Worker during the latter half of 1904, it is possible that he relocated to Sydney for a short period.

The image on the card showed an anthropomorphised Linotype machine shaking hands with a compositor, at a time when mechanical type-setting was replacing the jobs of large numbers of 'comps' in Melbourne.

The publication had the stated intention influencing voters for the Federal election to be held on 12 December 1906 in favour of George Reid's Anti-Socialist Party.

[62][63] During March and early April 1907 Australian newspapers published extensive reports describing the dramatic rescue of a miner, Modesto 'Charlie' Varischetti, at Bonnievale in the Coolgardie goldfields district of Western Australia.

After five days of pumping and the clearing of debris, divers were able to reach the trapped miner via the flooded mine-shafts, taking with them supplies of food and candles.

The divers continued to visit Varischetti until, after ten days, water levels had dropped sufficiently for the miner to be bought to the surface.

[65] A painting by Marquet titled 'The Rescue of Varischetti' was published in the 4 April 1907 issue of Punch, depicting when one of the divers emerged from the water to reach "the entombed miner".

[52] Seven of his cartoons were included in the Punch Annual, published in December 1907, by which time Marquet had moved to Sydney to join the staff of The Worker, a newspaper closely aligned with the labour movement (and espousing political views more complementary to his own).

[85][26] He illustrated a short story titled 'The Crippled Mare', written by Lyn Ridge and published in the December 1913 issue of The Lone Hand.

[88] With The Bulletin having embraced conservatism and actively supporting the war (and conscription in later years), The Australian Worker remained the most radical publication in general circulation throughout Australia.

The employer explains that he dislikes "the thought of sending able-bodied young men abroad to be shot as much as you do", adding: "If you'll voluntarily drop that annoying shield, I'll not press for conscription!".

[90] Marquet's next cartoon on the subject of conscription was on 13 July 1916, portraying an armed "exponent of militarism" assaulting an anti-conscriptionist and kicking over a box labelled "free speech".

[93] In the following week's issue Winspear's verse was republished, accompanied by an illustration by Marquet depicting a woman, with a conflicted look on her face, about to cast a 'Yes' vote, with a sinister demonic figure resembling Billy Hughes in the darkened background.

The Worker journalist Robert J. Cassidy later asserted that the illustrated poem "played a very considerable part in defeating the proposals of those who advocated throat-slitting by compulsion".

[96][B] A leaflet printed and distributed prior to the second conscription plebiscite in December 1917 used an illustration by Marquet titled 'The Death Ballot', published in The Australian Worker on 15 November 1917.

His illustrations focussed on themes such as the anti-labour bias of mainstream newspapers, the greed of trusts and war profiteers, the bickering and posturing of politicians and the threat of military conscription.

His contributions, together with his colleagues on The Worker and throughout the labour movement, managed to maintained a focus in Australian politics on class-consciousness and the dignity and value of the individual within the wider society "that could easily have been overwhelmed by the patriotic hysteria induced by Hughes and his supporters in parliament and the press".

[102] After Marquet's death fellow artist Alek Sass wrote of his friend's legacy: "Thinking his thoughts – vexing himself with the aching problems of humanity – keeping a fine, sane balance amidst the party hysteria of the papers he worked for – he brought a dignity and a personal force to his work that gives him an honoured place amongst the world's cartoonists".

The cartoons represented a record of the Labor movement during the previous fifteen years as well as being a "remarkable collection of one of Australia's ablest and most consistent cartoonists, whose influence will be felt far beyond his generation".