BON MOT DU TEMPS. Que fait donc Diogène avec une lanterne? Se disait des Dandys à l'élégant maintien. Messieurs, je cherche un homme, et de mon oeil lent-terne. Je n'en vois pas, dit -il; ce mot les vexa bien (Essai poétique de M. de Rambuteau).

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

Diogenus is walking, carrying a lantern in one hand and a large basket on his back. 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.