Difficile à faire paraitre svelte 1869

This lithograph, Difficile à faire paraitre svelte, was created by Honoré Daumier. Here, the "Budget" is depicted as an overweight man, struggling to be pulled by a thinner figure, a symbolic representation of the government's financial difficulties. Consider the age-old motif of struggle against a burden, a theme echoing the myth of Sisyphus, forever doomed to roll a boulder uphill. Here, the "Budget" is not merely a financial document, but a heavy, oppressive entity. The corpulent figure strains under its own weight, its face contorted in discomfort. It is reminiscent of ancient depictions of excess and decay. This image, born from ink and stone, taps into a deep, collective fear of financial instability, suggesting that, like Sisyphus, governments may be eternally bound to their fiscal burdens.