L' ENLEVEMENT D'HÉLÈNE. Pâris qui par amour sur les dents s'était mis, N'était plus guère bon qu'à fumer un cigarre. Hélène le savait aussi sans crier gare, Sur ses robustes bras elle enleva Pâris. (Enëide, travestie par Mr. Patin.)
L' ENLEVEMENT D'HÉLÈNE. Pâris qui par amour sur les dents s'était mis, N'était plus guère bon qu'à fumer un cigarre. Hélène le savait aussi sans crier gare, Sur ses robustes bras elle enleva Pâris. (Enëide, travestie par Mr. Patin.)
Title (alt.):
ABDUCTION OF HELEN. Paris who had worn himself out, Was good for nothing but smoking a cigar. Helen too also knew without warning, In those robust arms she bore off Paris. (Eneis, disguised by Mr. Patin.). Charivari
Description:
Helen is kidnapping Paris. In this print Daumier ridicules the abduction of Helen: she is neither beautiful nor weak, and who abducts whom in this picture? During the 1840's, a quarrel between painters of the classic and romantic schools had fully flared up. Delacroix asked the "loaded" question: "Who is going to liberate us from the old Greeks?" Daumier succeeded to answer it his own way by showing historic personalities such as Hercules, Pygmalion or Agamemnon in absurd situations.
Copyright restrictions may apply. For permission to copy or use this image, contact the Robert D. Farber University Archives and Special Collections Department, Brandeis University Libraries. The following credit line must be included with each item used: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman Collection of Honoré Daumier Lithographs, Robert D. Farber University Archives & Special Collections Department, Brandeis University.
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Place of origin:
Paris
Notes:
3rd state.
Published in: Le Charivari, June 22, 1842.
Notes (acquisition):
Donated by: Benjamin A. and Julia M. Trustman, 1959.