Ware afbeelding van de heer Quinquempoix, 1720 1720

Editor: This is an engraving called "Ware afbeelding van de heer Quinquempoix" from 1720 by Guillaume Duvivier. There’s something satirical about this image... chaotic, crammed with figures and text. What exactly is going on here? Curator: Ah, Quinquempoix! A name synonymous with the Mississippi Bubble, that fever dream of speculation in 18th-century France. What strikes me isn’t just the visual cacophony but the sly wit. Duvivier isn’t simply depicting a scene, he’s staging a mini-drama of greed. Editor: Greed? I thought maybe it was about financial complexities... All those documents! Curator: Think of those papers less as accounting and more as desperate pleas, wishful thinking rendered on paper, spiraling around our poor Quinquempoix. Look at the expressions: Hope, desperation, delusion all circling this one man! And notice the beastly figures emerging from the bottom? Are they demons of debt? Is he ascending or descending, do you think? Editor: I see what you mean about the satire. He’s being swarmed, almost overwhelmed by the situation he helped create. I like that, and the dramatic composition works. I wonder if many people at the time felt that way. Curator: It's a sharp visual critique served with a dash of humor—or perhaps a knowing smirk at human folly. So often we make gods out of wealth, then wonder why they never quite deliver. And Duvivier catches that perfectly. Editor: Definitely something to ponder - a memento mori for investors, perhaps! Thanks for sharing.