The Imagination
Fancy, the Ruler of the Guild of Smoke-Sellers, Paints here Mississippi, Which Wastes France's Treasures
Anonymous, 1720, etching and engraving
A mirror image of “Painting,” this personification of “The Imagination” (De Inbeelding) from The Great Mirror of Folly paints an image of a thriving harbor town with a vessel bearing the French fleur-de-lis flag about to enter port. But calling into question the canvas’s vision of plenty is Imagination, who finds herself in a room filled with worthless stock certificates and surrounded by putti, or cherubs, blowing bubbles. Sitting on dog-eared ledgers and rat-infested boxes, the woman cuts a hapless figure. Reinforcing this sorry tableau are the scenes at the corners, including the barely clothed Native American smoking a long tobacco pipe and wearing a headdress decorated not with feathers but with noisemakers inscribed “golden tinsel mines, all smoke.” The reference is to the Company’s empty promises, built in large part on exploiting both the natural resources of the Americas and the labor of its Indigenous populations.
: The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints, and Photographs
. The New York Public Library believes that this item is in the public domain under the laws of the United States, but did not make a determination as to its copyright status under the copyright laws of other countries.
