"- Tomorrow we will study Saturn. I want you to pay special attention to this great planet.... which in all likelihood you will never in your life have the opportunity to see!," plate 18 from Professeurs Et Moutards 1846

Curator: Look at the palpable boredom emanating from those kids. It's so potent, you could almost reach out and touch it. Editor: That's the genius of Honoré Daumier! This lithograph, dating back to 1846, is plate 18 from his series, *Professeurs et Moutards*. The title translates to “Tomorrow we will study Saturn. I want you to pay special attention to this great planet...which in all likelihood you will never in your life have the opportunity to see!" The artwork is currently held at The Art Institute of Chicago. Curator: The lamp acting as a globe, and that singular student’s exaggerated yawn--what do these symbols tell us about 19th-century France and its educational values? Are we meant to see an indictment of rote learning? Editor: Precisely! The caricature captures a deeply entrenched class disparity. Knowledge, especially scientific knowledge symbolized by Saturn, is dangled tantalizingly, yet remains perpetually out of reach for these working-class children. That yawn screams societal indifference! Curator: The almost aggressive gesticulation of the professor, that forced gaze toward the artificial globe—it echoes something timeless about authority figures. It resonates with historical impositions on freedom. Editor: Daumier frequently used lithography to skewer the bourgeoisie, and this piece fits that narrative. It's an astute commentary on power structures of knowledge, education acting more as a method of social control than actual enlightenment for the working class. Curator: Beyond the political narrative, observe how Daumier captured the feeling of weary, enforced concentration. Editor: Yes, the physical weariness speaks to something larger about social mobility and opportunity, and that teacher isn't making it any easier for these kids! Curator: A heavy critique made more digestible with sharp humour, a style perfectly exemplified through these distinct graphic contrasts. Daumier creates a darkly humourous narrative of alienation that extends far beyond the classroom. Editor: Agreed, and by rooting the moment in the visual metaphor of the globe and that mocked scientific gaze, he touches upon the inaccessibility of lofty ideals like advancement through science and education to those already socially constrained. This really stands up as a testament to the accessibility and potency of art as a tool of socio-political commentary.