Daumier kept in his studio a cast of a Roman frieze depicting an exodus of conquered people. He must have worked on his own version over decades, only completing it around the time of the Paris Commune. The originals were done in clay, perhaps as a model for a painting. A mass of people move through open country. Men carry a stretcher and bundles.
Children struggle beside their mothers.
All are left in the nude, the central figure a muscular woman seen from the back. With her left hand, she holds a small child's hand. Leaning back and twisting her hips, she looks to her baby in the other arm. The whole creates a timeless image of war's horror. One feels a palpable connection to the taut figures of the twentieth century sculptor Alberto Giacommetti.