La Soif de l'or

Thomas Couture's La Soif de l'or (The Thirst for Gold, 1844) is a moralizing allegory depicting humanity's enslavement to avarice, with figures scrambling for gold coins while a skeleton — Death — presides over the scene. Couture was deeply influenced by the satirical traditions of French moralism and by Venetian Renaissance colouring, and this early canvas anticipates the vast theatrical ambition of his celebrated Romans of the Decadence three years later. Held at the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, it reveals Couture developing the blend of classical allegory and contemporary critique that defined his mature work.

Couture deploys a pyramidal composition with the skeleton elevated at centre, surrounding figures arranged in attitudes of feverish grasping. The palette is warm and richly Venetian — amber, gold, and ochre — while theatrical lighting gives the allegorical scene the quality of staged performance, distinguishing it from the cooler Neoclassical canvases of the previous generation.