“- 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 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.