Robert Macaire Dentiste
HC.J.16.X.101
After the lithograph by Honore Daumier (1808-79), Charivari, 9 July 1837.
An angry patient gestures to his open mouth as the dentist Robert Macaire (attired in a long dressing-gown) attempts to placate him.
A translation of the legend reads
Patient: Confound it! Mr. Dentist, you have extracted two good teeth and left two bad ones.
Robert Macaire (inaudible), 'The Devil' (aloud) Without doubt and I was right...We can always extract the bad ones...As for the others, they would have decayed and caused you pain a false set will never make you suffer and it is more fashionable, people wear nothing else nowadays'
Published by Aubert et Cie (Gabriel Aubert, 1789-1847, and Charles Philippon), Paris
(from V&A website) The original print from a series the swindler Robert Macaire (originally a character from a play) in a variety of roles. Macaire's character symbolised the mood in France at the time of the July Monarchy of the 1830s and 1840s, when wealthy financiers and company owners dominated politics and looked after their own interests at the expense of others.
Nineteenth century, mid
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