Le BEAU NARCISSE. Il était jeune et beau, de leurs douces haleines, Les zéphirs caressaient ses contours pleins d'attraits, Et dans le miroir des fontaines Il aimait comme nous à contempler ses traits. Quatrain intime de Mr. Narcisse de Salvandry.

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

Narciss is looking into the water to see his image. His thin body does not quite correspond to the classical Greek image of beauty, and he should actually be rather frightened than overjoyed when looking at himself. 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.