Window mode follows your eyes with your camera, in this browser only: no picture or position leaves your device.

“- Adelaide, Adelaide.. I think I can see the comet coming!!... - Oh my God... this is the end of the world.... how annoying. They promised it wouldn't come until June 13!,” plate 31 from Croquis Parisiens

Honoré-Victorin Daumier (French, 1808-1879)

February 18, 1857

Medium: Lithograph in black on ivory wove paper
Classification: Print
Dimensions: Image: 20.4 × 25.9 cm (8 1/16 × 10 1/4 in.); Sheet: 25.2 × 36 cm (9 15/16 × 14 3/16 in.)
Culture: France
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
Credit line: Gift of Charles E. Worcester
Rights: Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed

About this work

After the Comet of Charles V failed to reappear in the 1840s, as astronomers predicted, a Belgian almanac writer announced that it would arrive on June 13, 1857, when it would collide with the earth and end all life. The prediction spread across Europe, but its effect was particularly pronounced in Paris, where terrified families began to prepare for the end. The situation was ripe for mockery, and it also enabled Daumier to compose a variety of night scenes, which he particularly enjoyed drawing. In this print, he devotes particular care to depicting how the candle illuminates his panicked Parisians.