Daumier mastered lithography and published satirical political and social car toons. From about 1848, he also created oil paintings. Fascinated by Cervantes’ Don Quixote, he produced a series of oil paintings, watercolors, and sketches of scenes from that novel. Written in the early seventeenth century, it became popular in France in the nineteenth century. Daumier encountered its French translation about 1848. Here Don Quixote, with lance and shield, on his white horse Rocinante, occupies the center of the painting. Sancho Panza, on a donkey, follows him. In this dark painting, the red of the saddle and the horse’s mouth stand out.