It Used to Be Different! 1867

Curator: Honoré Daumier's lithograph, "It Used to Be Different!" presents a poignant scene. Editor: Oh, this has a real theatrical feel. The figure kneeling before the carriage, it's almost a desperate plea rendered in stark lines. Curator: The exaggerated posture and the cluster of onlookers certainly evoke a sense of drama, don't they? Think of it as Daumier's way of using caricature to critique social change. Editor: I see the fallen hat as a symbol of lost status. The contrast between the man and the indifferent carriage wheel—it's a wheel of fortune turned against him. Curator: Yes, and the surrounding figures, their top hats and averted gazes, they embody the cold indifference of a changing world. Editor: It definitely reads like a memory of better times—a visual echo of a past ideal. Curator: Perhaps, it is a reminder that time changes everything, and not always for the better. Editor: Well, it makes you wonder, doesn't it, about what "used to be different" and how progress always leaves someone behind.