Le Crocodile

Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879) Le Crocodille (The Crocodile), 1838 Lithograph General Acquisitions Fund, 1944.189.1

Il s’agit ici d’une variété de l’espèce Crocodille, celle qui était connue des anciens sous le nom de Tantale, et que, de nos jours un naturaliste du gymnase a appelée Le Gastronome sans argent. On trouve le plus communément ce vorace Cétacé dans les parages des Mds. de Comestibles. Ses dents sont aigues et fort longues, faute d’exercice, car il ne sert que de ses yeux pour dévorer. Lorsqu’il a eu la constance de rester pendant une journée toute entière en arrêt devant sa proie il fi-nit quelquefois par avoir le bonheur d’attraper ... un torticolis. Il ne se nourrit que de désirs et de fumée, aussi est-il remarqua-blement maigre. Bien different des autres poissons de son espèce qui nagent en pleine eau, ce genre de Crocodille est toujours à sec.

Here we have one variety of the species Crocodile known to the ancients by the name “Tantalus,” and which a zoologist in our day has labeled “The Penniless Gourmet." This voracious ceta-cean is most often found in the vicinity of fine food shops. His teeth are sharp and quite long, from lack of exercise, since he devours only with his eyes. When he has had the fortitude to spend an entire day watching his prey, he sometimes has the pleasure of catching... a stiff neck. He is nourished only by cravings and vain hopes and is remarkably thin. Unlike the other fish of his species, which swim in abundant seas, this type of crocodile is always stuck on dry land.

In the series Natural History Lessons, Daumier and Philipon parodied natural history books popular at the time. Daumier provided illustrations of different “social species” to be found in the streets of Paris, and Philipon wrote pseudoscientific captions describing the behaviors and habitats of these social types. The expression être à sec, means both to be dry and to be broke.

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