Jongeman aan een tafel bouwt een kaartenhuis c. 1734 - 1811

Antoine de Marcenay de Ghuy created this print, “Young Man Building a House of Cards,” sometime in the 18th century. It captures the era’s preoccupation with both leisure and the inherent risks of aristocratic life. The young man, fashionably dressed, is absorbed in a frivolous pursuit, yet the precarious house of cards can be seen as a metaphor for the fragile social structures of pre-revolutionary France. The game suggests the instability of wealth and status dependent on inherited privilege rather than merit. It’s worth noting that de Ghuy, despite his noble origins, embraced printmaking - a medium accessible to a broader public - rather than painting, a path more traditionally favored by the elite. Historians like myself find such details crucial. By researching de Ghuy’s biography, the print's distribution, and contemporary attitudes toward leisure and social mobility, we gain a deeper understanding of how art reflected and subtly challenged the norms of its time.