“- Oh blast! .... it's again my own dog that I shot..... that's the third one in two years.... I'm really not very lucky at hunting!,” plate 6 from Croquis D'automne par Daumier 1865

This lithograph by Honoré Daumier depicts a hapless hunter who has mistakenly shot his own dog, a tragicomic scene filled with symbolic weight. Consider the ancient motif of the hunt, often associated with virility and skill. Here, it's inverted, becoming a symbol of incompetence and misfortune. The dog, historically a symbol of loyalty, lies prone, a victim of misplaced trust. We are reminded of Actaeon, punished for his accidental voyeurism, torn apart by his own hounds—a primal fear of betrayal embedded in our cultural psyche. Daumier's humor is dark, probing the anxieties of modern life. The hunter, an archetype of mastery, is reduced to a figure of ridicule, a commentary on the fragility of human endeavor. The image resonates with the eternal dance of man and nature, order and chaos, success and failure, a cycle ever present in the human drama.