Déjeuner II (from Actualités)

This lithograph depicts a domestic scene of social embarrassment: a fashionable gentleman admires a portrait on the wall while a seated woman appears distressed or indignant. The print belongs to the Actualités series satirizing contemporary Parisian life. The sharp linework and tonal modeling typical of lithography emphasize facial expressions and gesture to convey the scene's awkward comedy. Such observational humor about manners and relationships descended from 18th-century print satire by Hogarth and Rowlandson, establishing a tradition of social caricature that directly influenced comic illustration and later comic strips. The genre relied on exaggerated physiognomy and costume to identify character types, techniques foundational to sequential art and the visual grammar of comics.