Schets voor karikatuur van mr. Rutger Jan graaf Schimmelpenninck 1886

Johan Michaël Schmidt Crans made this pencil sketch of Rutger Jan Graaf Schimmelpenninck sometime in the 19th century. The drawing is a caricature, a type of image that reflects the increasingly important role of the press and popular opinion in 19th-century European politics. Caricatures such as this one use humor and exaggeration to comment on public figures and political issues. Artists and publishers produced and distributed these images, and their popularity depended on a shared understanding between artist and audience. For example, the large head and diminutive body in this sketch were conventional visual codes for mocking a politician’s vanity and ineffectiveness. Without further research into the political climate in the Netherlands at the time this was made and a better understanding of Schimmelpenninck’s place in it, we can only speculate about the image's precise meaning. But that’s the work of the historian: placing the image within its social and institutional context.