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Honoré-Victorin Daumier

The Parisians don't quite trust the assurances of Monsieur Babinet and insist on lying in wait for the comet, plate 394 from Actualités

May 1, 1857
Lithograph in black on white wove paper
20.4 × 25.7 cm (8 × 10.1 in)

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FROM THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO’S CATALOG

Here, a little over a month before the deadly comet is due to land, a couple anxiously watches the skies for its arrival. Jacques Babinet, the “Monsieur Babinet” of the caption, was a member of the French Academy of Sciences and widely known as a charismatic speaker and writer on astronomy. Soon after the prediction was made, he publicly refuted the idea that a comet was going to end the world, in an attempt to quell some of the panic. Babinet was eventually proven right when no comet appeared on June 13, and life persisted.

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