Ontwerp voor een brief aan koningin Wilhelmina c. 1901

This is Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof’s sketch for a letter to Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. It's undated, but likely comes from around the turn of the twentieth century. Dijsselhof was deeply involved in the Arts and Crafts movement, where the aesthetic value of text and image was greatly prized. Dijsselhof brings together heraldic imagery with stylized lettering, reflecting a deep concern with the historical associations of his design. The Netherlands was at this time undergoing a period of rapid industrialization, so artists sought to reaffirm national identity by looking back to a mythic past of craft production and national heroes. The piece thus embodies the complicated relationship between nationalism, industrialization, and the institutional history of art. To understand this work better, it’s worth exploring the history of Dutch heraldry and the social role of royal portraiture. Art history helps us understand the political work that images perform.