“- I'm never calm when I see you go out like this... I am always afraid, Monsieur Moussard, that you may be infidel,” plate 67 from Les Bons Bourgeois 1847

Honoré Daumier created this lithograph, “I'm never calm when I see you go out like this... I am always afraid, Monsieur Moussard, that you may be infidel,” as plate 67 from Les Bons Bourgeois. Daumier made this series during the July Monarchy in France, a period defined by its burgeoning middle class and complex social dynamics. Here, Daumier satirizes the anxieties of bourgeois life. The print depicts a stout man in uniform, complete with an absurdly tall bearskin hat, as his wife expresses her fears of infidelity. Her concern reflects the gendered expectations of fidelity and the vulnerability of women within the patriarchal structures of the time. Daumier’s choice to depict the man in a Grenadier’s uniform also speaks to the militarization of French society and the bourgeois man’s performative role within it. The image’s humor underscores the absurdity of these social roles and expectations, inviting us to consider the emotional landscape of a society grappling with changing identities and moral codes.