Caught up in the flow of city life, a faceless crowd hurries along a Parisian pavement between the loosely-sketched facades of buildings and a tree which is barely outlined. Among the rich brown shades of the clothes and hats, a few faces, sharply sculpted by the light, return the viewer's gaze. The figure on the right with its back turned, dressed in white and wearing a bonnet, appears almost ghostly.

Honoré Daumier, who was mainly known for his talent for lithography, was also a painter and sculptor. The artist created three paintings on the theme of Passers-by. The version held in Lyon is the most accomplished of the three, none of which are dated.

The artist places his canvas lengthways, which enables him to lay out the composition in a frieze. The impenetrable, almost disturbing features are not unlike the uncompromising characters which Daumier modelled from clay. They bring to mind works such as the Célébrities ot the Juste milieu, acerbic caricatures in the form of small busts of the influential figures of Daumier's time (mainly parliamentarians), of which a bronze series is exhibited in the museum collections. 

The spontaneity of the execution, combined with the painting's unfinished appearance, transfigures this mundane street scene. The artist is showing us a dark vision in this work: a fragment of humanity, like a scene taken from the Commedia dell'Arte.