The remark is usually taken out of its original context. The phrase is also often seen as foretelling the French Revolution and the corresponding ruin brought to aristocratic decadence. Après nous, le déluge.' Another account states that the Madame used the expression to laugh off ministerial objections to her extravagances. One account says that Louis XV's downcast expression while he was posing for the artist Maurice Quentin de La Tour inspired Madame de Pompadour to say: 'Il ne faut point s'affliger vous tomberiez malade. The phrase itself is in reference to the biblical flood and is believed to date from after the 1757 Battle of Rossbach, which was disastrous for the French. Its meaning is translated by Brewer in the forms 'When I am dead the deluge may come for aught I care', and 'Ruin, if you like, when we are dead and gone.' It is generally regarded as a nihilistic expression of indifference to whatever happens after one is gone, though it may also express a more literal forecasting of ruination. 'After us, the flood') to Madame de Pompadour, his favourite. 'After me, the flood') is a French expression attributed to King Louis XV of France, or in the form ' Après nous, le déluge' ( pronounced lit. ' Après moi, le déluge' ( pronounced lit.