When the Devil Grew Old He Became a Hermit, plate 476

When the Devil Grew Old He Became a Hermit, plate 476 — Honoré Daumier. 1835.

Medium: Lithograph in black on off-white wove paper. Dimensions: Image: 19.9 × 26.2 cm (7 7/8 × 10 3/8 in.); Sheet: 27.1 × 36.4 cm (10 11/16 × 14 3/8 in.).

Collection record: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Carnivalesque humor and bodily deformation take an occult turn in this print, in which Louis Philippe and his ambassador to Great Britain, Charles de Talleyrand, are transformed into demonic friars. Daumier highlighted the hypocrisy of the regime through details such as the crucified figure of Liberty, the rosary made of coins, Talleyrand’s cloven hoof, and Louis Philippe’s hooked toenail. Yet Talleyrand’s feline familiar appears more domesticated than devilish, a sign of bourgeois respectability embedded in the fantastical.

Description: © Art Institute of Chicago, original record, CC BY 4.0. HTML formatting removed; wording retained. Other artwork metadata: CC0.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.