“How silly ! Just look how they run. That's what you get when you are at the wrong place. Just you wait! Next time, tell us in advance and we'll take good care of you...,” plate 1 from Émotions Parisiennes 1839

Honoré Daumier created this lithograph, plate 1 from Émotions Parisiennes, capturing a dark Parisian scene. Dominating the foreground is a barrel disguised with a grotesque, smoking female figure, a symbol of hidden motives and deceit. Consider how Daumier uses disguise, a recurring motif throughout art history as a tool for satire and social critique. We see echoes of Commedia dell’Arte characters, where masks reveal as much as they conceal. Think of Harlequin, whose motley costume and agile movements allow him to mock authority with impunity. The fleeing figures in the background could be escaping punishment, or perhaps they represent the victims of the deception. Their hurried retreat evokes the primal fear of being caught, a fear deeply rooted in the human psyche. The image is an exercise in collective memory, echoing the ever-present tension between appearance and reality, a theme that continues to resonate in our own era of misinformation and hidden agendas. It is a reminder that what we see is not always what is, and that the masks people wear often hide their true intentions.