La mère des gracques. Un jour qu'une Lorette avec effronterie Lui vantait des joyaux qui valaient quelque sous, En montrant ses deux fils, l'espoir et la patrie, Cette Romaine dit: Voilà mes seuls bijoux!! (Plutarque.).

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

Two women are showing off their prize possessions, their jewels. Daumier's slightly viscious drawing about the virtues of motherhood can be seen as a caricature to Philipp F. Hetschs Cornelia, Mutter der Gracchen, a painting dating back to 1794, which can be seen at the Stuttgarter Staatsgalerie. Here the term "Lorette" is an expression describing "independent ladies". At 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.