Het Comité van Rekening (The Accounts Committee)

This copper etching depicts a street scene where five figures—dressed as common people and soldiers—gather around a kneeling man presenting a ledger or account book. A building labeled "Tafel der Multiplicatie" (Multiplication Table) stands behind them, with posted notices visible on its wall. The print satirizes the Dutch revolutionary government's financial administration during the Batavian Republic, ridiculing both the competence of officials handling public accounts and the confusion of revolutionary bureaucracy. The etching descends from the Northern European tradition of political satire—practiced by artists like Hogarth and Rowlandson—wherein ordinary citizens, exaggerated physiques, and street-level comedy target corruption and mismanagement. The style influenced later caricature and eventually comic sequential art, establishing visual humor as a vehicle for political critique.