J'ai vu un lièvre... il y a huit jours! 1846

Honoré Daumier’s lithograph presents us with two figures on a country road, one pointing emphatically into the distance. The gesture of pointing, seemingly simple, carries echoes through art history. Think of Saint John the Baptist in Renaissance paintings, forever pointing towards the divine. It's a signal, a call to attention that transcends mere direction. In Daumier’s image, however, the mundane overtakes the sacred. The peasant points, not to God, but perhaps to where he claims to have seen a hare a week prior. This act of pointing has morphed from a symbol of spiritual guidance to one of everyday storytelling, tinged with humor and perhaps a touch of the absurd. Even here in the 19th century, we sense the faint reverberation of older, grander gestures struggling to find relevance in a world increasingly focused on the here and now. The memory of the sacred remains, but it has taken on a new vernacular form.