Formal Art Analysis: A Loan Shark and A Woman Customer of His

Léopold Flameng (22 November 1831 – 5 September 1911) was a French engraver, illustrator and painter.

In his Painting A loan Shark and A Woman Customer of His, we can see the attention that has been paid to many rather trivial aspects of the painting. The two subjects portrayed in the painting are the loan shark, the old man sitting down, and the woman, standing in the corner.

By their expressions we can tell their nature and the position they are in now. The loan shark has a hard jaw and shows little to no expression, especially no compassion, empathy or sympathy for the woman. He cares little for his customers' state and is only self interested. It is likely that he has dealt with many such customers, and has developed a very greedy mindset that prevents him from being compassionate to others.

On the other hand, the woman seems relatively new and inexperienced to finance and the business world. She shows emotion and acts unprofessionally. It seems that she did not understand the terms of the agreements of the Loan when she took it, and now cannot pay back the amount agreed.

Now that we have examined the characters, let us examine the details of the painting. First, we notice that the room is covered in an uneasy gloom. The windows are curtained, and the room has but a few light sources to begin with. We feel that the setting and decorum of the room is purposefully kept that way, as if the loan shark does not want for people to see, or worse understand the nature of his work, firstly because they might reason out that becoming indebted to him may not be in their best interests and secondly, because he might be doing something illegal.

We also notice the chest, and the gold coins lying about. This may be a strategy of power projection upon his customers, to show that he is much more powerful than them, and his resources will stretch much further than theirs. He also holds the scale in his hands, signifying the fact that even though there is justice in the world, it will function the way he wants, he is the judge.

We also notice that the papers are kept by him, signaling to the customers that what he does is legal, and right. But that is not necessarily true, he may not have such permissions and the papers may be a facade.

We see that the room is small, to give an effect of choking. The suffocation of the customer is clearly visible and the perfect calmness of the wolf in his own den. The customer has no choice but to come to him for help, as finance begins choking him. Thus, we understand the slyness of the loan shark in creating such an atmosphere in which the victim is made to beg the tyrant to end his tyranny upon him, and has no other choice, space, money, or time to do otherwise.

Unlicensed loan sharks continue to operate in immigrant enclaves and low-income neighbourhoods even today. They prey on the informal sector or those who are rejected even by check-cashing creditors. Likewise, loan sharks target victims through social media from dating sites to local community groups. An article by James Tapper on The Guardian deals with this issue.

Formal Analysis: A loan Shark and A Woman Customer of His