ALEXANDRE ET DIOGÈNE. Le Sage qui goipait dans le simple appareil D'un voyou fumant sa bouffarde. Dit au héros qui le regarde: Esbigne-toi de mon soleil! Goualante de Mr. Eugène Sue.

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

Diogenes asks Alexander to move because the latter's shadow is blocking the sun. 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.