“- May the devil get the inventor of all these New Year's presents!” Reflection of a sensitive, generous but tormented Parisian father, plate 476 from Actualités 1858

Honoré Daumier created this lithograph as plate 476 of Actualités. Look at the father figure, burdened both physically and emotionally; his face, a mask of weary resignation, as he juggles his children and their New Year's gifts. Note the motif of burden-carrying, an echo of the classical Atlas or even Saint Christopher. The weary parent bearing the weight of offspring and material desires reappears throughout art history, transforming from the sacred to the secular, from myth to mundane reality. It is a motif rooted in the primal relationship between parent and child. This composition, steeped in a subtle emotional charge, resonates deeply with viewers, tapping into shared experiences of parental duty and the anxieties it entails. The visual symbol of the burdened father, repeated across time, shows the cyclical and continuous nature of human experience, echoing through the ages.