L' ABANDON D'ARIANE. Près de sa treille sur la rive, Elle se disait en ce jour: Pour me consoler de l'amour Il est temps que Bacchus arrive. Poësies du cœur par Melle. Fl.

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

In this print we find again Ariadne, left behind by Theseus… not a nice trend when taking into account that she had supplied the famous thread to help Theseus find his way out of the Labyrinth at Crete. She did not have to wait long however…. Daumier indicates by showing grapes and vine behind her that Bacchus is close at hand and will console her generously. During the 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.