most of them belonging to the Gobin collection in Paris. It was Gobin who decided to have a bronze cast done by Valsuani in an edition of 30 each. Again, they were posthumous and there is no proof, in contrast to the busts mentioned above, that these terra cotta figurines really were done by Daumier himself. The American school (J.Wasserman from the Fogg-Harvard Museum) doubts their authenticity, while the French school, especially Gobin, Lecomte, and Le Garrec and Cherpin, all somehow involved in the marketing of the bronze editions, are sure of their Daumier origin. The Daumier Register (the international center of Daumier research) as well as the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC would consider the figurines as 'in the manner of Daumier' or even 'by an imitator of Daumier' (NGA) There can be no doubt about the authenticity of Daumier's Ratapoil and his Emigrants. The self-portrait in bronze as well as the bust of Louis XIV have been frequently debated over the last 100 years, but the general tenor is to accept them as originals by Daumier. Daumier created many figurines that he subsequently used as models for his paintings. One of Daumier's most well-known figurines, titled The Heavy Burden, features a woman and her child. The woman is carrying something, possibly a large bag; the figurine is about 14 inches tall. Oliver W. Larkin states that "One sees in the clay the mark of Daumier's swift fingers as he nudged the skirt into windblown folds and used a knife blade or the end of a brush handle to define the clasped arms and the wrinkles of the cloth over the breast. In oil, he could only approximate this small masterpiece most successfully in two canvases were once owned by Arsene Alexandre." Daumier made several paintings of The Heavy Burden. The woman and her child look like they are being pushed by the wind, and Daumier used this as a metaphor of the greater forces they were actually fighting against. The greater forces that Daumier wanted to show that they were trying to fight were the Revolution, the government, and poverty. The woman and her child in the painting are outlined by a very dark shadow. Prints and graphics Daumier produced his social caricatures for Le Charivari, in which he held bourgeois society up to ridicule in the figure of Robert Macaire, hero of a popular melodrama.