Emotions Parisiennes. L'or est une chimère - pour ceux qui n'ont pas le sou / hD.

Print shows a man in a tall black hat with his hands in his pockets, looking sardonically at a window, covered by a grill, behind which sit bowls of coins. Daumier was a French caricaturist and cartoonist, who turned from political cartooning (after a stiff censorship law was passed) to satirizing the social and economic mores of middle class society. This print was one of 42 featuring emotional moments in the lives of his fellow Parisians. The title can be roughly translated as: Gold is a myth, for those who don't have a penny.
The title is a reference to an aria (Act 1, Scene 7) in the opera Robert le Diable, which premiered in 1831. (Source: Tom Moore, 2012)

Plate: 2.
Forms part of: Art Wood Collection of Caricature and Cartoon (Library of Congress).
Exhibited: "Timely and Timeless" at the Graphic Arts Galleries, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., 2011-2012.
Unprocessed in WOOD/Daumier.89
No date in inventory, date approx. for time series was published/ww
World encyclopedia of cartoons, p. 186-87 ljr