DAUMIER, H. - Croquis Parisiens - " Je suis bien malheureux, si vous voulez me prêter un peu d'attention.... - Je veux bien vous prêter ça, mais il me serait impossible de vous prêter autre chose."

Second state (of 3), with text. From "Croquis Parisiens". Text below image :
"- Queu poisson!...
- Il est tout de même biau... mais y n'doit pas être bon à manger... c'est tout d'z'arêtes.
- Comme quoi un seul ours suffit pour amuser deux cents Parisiens."
( - What a fish! - It looks good, but I don't think that it tastes good with all the bones. - How a single bear can entertain two hundred Parisians.)

In 1855 Daumier started publishing his famous caricatures "Ces Bons Parisiens" (These good Parisians) a series consisting of 11 prints, of which 10 appeared between March 1855 and May 1858 in the Charivari and one in January 1860. A number of extremely rare albums appeared on white paper.

Known chiefly as a political and social satirist, Honoré DAUMIER (1808-1879) used the printmaking process of lithography, still relatively new at the time, to contribute cartoons and caricatures to French news weeklies.