Waiting-room for the Brussels Train -- View Taken During a Day of a Sell-off at the Stock Exchange 1852

Editor: Daumier's lithograph, "Waiting-room for the Brussels Train -- View Taken During a Day of a Sell-off at the Stock Exchange," feels so frantic! The caricatured figures are unsettling. What symbols do you see at play here? Curator: The crowding, the exaggerated features – these magnify anxiety around economic instability. Consider the hats, emblems of status, rendered almost grotesque. What does this distortion tell us about the cultural value placed on wealth and class during this period? Editor: So, Daumier's exaggerations serve as social commentary? Curator: Precisely! It’s a potent reminder of how societal pressures can warp our perceptions and values. Editor: I hadn't considered how the symbols themselves reflect the anxieties. Thanks!