Donald Duck thinks he has caught a fish, unaware the hook is caught in his own coat. Mickey laughs. Lichtenstein’s early Pop breakthrough turns a children’s cartoon into a painting about illusion, embarrassment, and looking. The joke is simple, but the art-historical move is enormous.

Oil on canvas, imitating printed cartoon style with flat color, outlines, and simplified forms.

Donald’s mistake suggests the traps of seeing. Mickey’s laughter implicates the viewer in the joke.

By lifting Disney imagery into painting, Lichtenstein challenged the boundary between commercial illustration and fine art.

The work helped launch American Pop Art’s use of mass-culture sources.