Changeant son cheval borgne pour un aveugle

Executed as a lithograph, the image relies on bold contour lines and varied shading to model volume and convey kinetic energy. The choice of newsprint as support underscores the work’s immediacy and its intended circulation among a broad readership, while the stark contrast typical of Daumier’s prints heightens the satirical impact.

Daumier produced the print during a prolific period of contribution to satirical journals such as La Caricature and Le Charivari. Though originally distributed in these periodicals, the lithograph later entered private collections before being acquired by public institutions, reflecting its continued relevance as a document of 19th‑century French political discourse.

The mid‑1860s in France were marked by shifting power dynamics under the Second Empire, with growing republican sentiment. Daumier’s republican democratic outlook informed his relentless lampooning of monarchy, aristocracy, and clergy, and this lithograph fits within that broader campaign of visual protest against established authority.