The great French graphic artist and caricaturist Honoré Daumier often returned to the subject of collectors and connoisseurs, looking over artist's shoulders or pouring over portfolios of choice prints, as in this picture. It has been said that Daumier chose such subjects because they sold well, appealing to collectors who saw their interests reflected. But their saleability alone does not account for Daumier's fascination with the subject, to which he returned so often. In the words of Henry James' memorable essay on Daumier, in them we see reflected 'the old Parisian quay, the belittered print-shop, the pleasant afternoon, the glimpse of the great Louvre and the other side of the Siene, ... estampes suspended in the window and doorway .. extracted, piece by piece from musty portfolios'. In such works Daumier captured the essence of the whole disease of collecting, and it is appropriate that the present example should have been owned by the great collector Constantine Alexander Ionides, who gave it to the Victoria and Albert Museum with other fine examples of Daumier's work, including a notable 'Railway Waiting Room'.