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“- Now I understand why this chap was so quiet all the time..... instead of reading quietly in his Greek dictionary, he was indulging in a novel...!!,” plate 22 from Professeurs and Moutards

Honoré-Victorin Daumier (French, 1808-1879)

1846

Medium: Lithograph in black on white wove paper
Classification: Print
Dimensions: Image: 19 × 24.8 cm (7 1/2 × 9 13/16 in.); Sheet: 24.7 × 32.8 cm (9 3/4 × 12 15/16 in.)
Culture: France
Museum: Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
Credit line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Carter H. Harrison
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

Honoré Daumier’s satirical works capture comic moments in daily life; the series Professors and Rascals illustrates scenes from elementary school classrooms. In this print, a student grimaces after a teacher finds a novel smuggled inside a textbook. In another, a young boy desperately attempts to summon the teacher’s attention to be excused to the bathroom, but the teacher is asleep. Lithographs such as these, and their accompanying captions, were published widely in magazines in 19th-century France.