This exceptionally large print is unusual in his work, being scarcely a caricature at all. The subject, reported in a supposedly neutral way, was the repression that had followed a riot on 5 April 1834, during which a family in the working-class district of St Martin had been shot by government troops. Daumier shows the dreadful scene with remarkable skill, as the full horror only emerges as the eyes examine the dark recesses.