"What do you think of the expedition?" from Metamorphoses of the Day 1829

J. J. Grandville crafted "What do you think of the expedition?" a lithograph, part of his "Metamorphoses of the Day" series. The composition is anchored by a lion-headed figure, comfortably seated, reading a newspaper, while a parrot-headed barber attends to him. Grandville plays with scale and proportion to create a world where animal heads sit incongruously on human bodies, disrupting our expectations of form. This visual disruption serves a satirical purpose, challenging fixed meanings of identity and status. Grandville uses semiotic codes to comment on society. The lion, traditionally a symbol of courage and nobility, is here domesticated, reading the news with a dog at his side. Meanwhile, the parrot, often associated with mimicry, is cast as a barber. Through these juxtapositions, Grandville destabilizes established meanings and invites us to question the values and categories of his time. The piece reflects a broader artistic concern with exploring new ways of thinking about representation, power, and perception. The careful rendering of textures, from the lion's mane to the parrot's feathers, further enhances the artwork's visual impact. Ultimately, it is through this formal quality that the work functions not just aesthetically but as part of a larger cultural and philosophical discourse, challenging conventional ways of seeing and understanding the world.