Un Enfant terrible... (An unruly child...), from the series Revers des Médailles

An illustrator of children’s books, Gavarni was the father of two children of his own, to whom he was very attached. Gavarni loved the spontaneous poses and gestures of children and admired them for their disarming honesty. In this print, a boy has gotten into his father’s hair pomade, creating an enormous mess and embodying the cultural stereotype that boys are naughty and can be expected to get into trouble. The caption below the image reads: “An unruly child that someone was foolish enough to let play with a jar of hair cream for dandies.”