GENTLEMEN EN TOILETTE DE WORKHOUSE. Les riches en se déguisant en pauvres pourront bien donner aux pauvres l'idée de se metamorphoser en riches.

Trustman, Benjamin A., Trustman, Julia M. · 1866

There exists a unique copy of this print in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York on "papier mince" as a printer's proof, signed and dated (February 23, 1866) by Destouches. This print was previously part of the Hazard collection (see collector's mark N-A). Daumier makes a reference to the English "workhouses" and institutions of the period (see also Charles Dickens). Initially, these places were prisons which at a later date were changed into houses of forced labour. Later again, these workhouses offered short term employment to unemployed workers to assure they might at least earn their daily bread.