The paper considers issues of interpretation of Honore Daumier’s painting «Drama» (Neue Pinakothek, Munich). A. Rykov explores «Drama» as a unique example of deconstruction strategies in the nineteenth-century art. The author studies religious, social and erotic connotations of the painting. Special attention is paid to the problems of mass culture and populism in the context of Romantic aesthetics. The paper belongs to the author’s scientific project on the investigation of the origins of avant-garde art.