Flight of the Bankers

This lithograph satirizes two Belgian bank directors—De Brouckere and Count de Vilain XIV—fleeing on horseback past a shuttered bank as crowds gather in alarm. The print belongs to the European tradition of political satire inherited from Gillray and Rowlandson, popularized across the continent by Daumier and others. Here, the exaggerated figures and chaotic street scene mock financial malfeasance during the economic instability following Belgian independence. The lithographic technique allowed rapid, cheap production for mass circulation—a distribution method that would directly influence the emerging illustrated press and eventually comic papers. Such prints shaped public opinion through caricature and narrative sequence, establishing visual conventions later adopted by early comic strips and graphic storytelling.