Une RENCONTRE DE JOYEUX AUGURES. Les Augures, dit-on, ne pouvaient s'aborder Sans rire de leur fourberie: Mais nos chevaliers d'industrie Se traitent gravement et sans se dérider. (Viennet. Fable nouvelle)

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

Two men are meeting and appear to be cautious of one another. 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.