La mort d'Anacréon. Entre le fromage et la poire, Ce chantre des amours folâtrait après boire, Lorsqu'un malencontreux pépin Lui fit perdre le goût du pain. (Bossuet, Oeuvres badine.)

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1842

A woman is throwing food to Anacreon from across the table. In the print we find red-nosed Anacreon, at 85 years of age still thoroughly enjoying the more attractive things in life. Little did he know that he would eventually suffocate from the grape so elegantly served by his lightly dressed companion. During this time, 1840's, A quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.