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.)

Abstract

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.