Geluk als een vrouwelijke nar / val uit een boot. 1707

Jan Goeree etched this print, "Fortune as a Female Fool / Falling out of a Boat," sometime between 1670 and 1731. Its two scenes reflect on the capricious nature of fortune. In the upper scene, a woman dressed as a fool is adorned by a winged figure as others look on. Below, a man tumbles from a boat in a Dutch canal. The Dutch Republic in this period was a mercantile powerhouse. It saw the emergence of a large middle class and a vibrant public sphere, one in which ideas about fortune, fate, and social mobility were fiercely debated. The Dutch were keen to understand the relationship between the individual and the collective. Prints like this one circulated widely and contributed to that conversation. They helped individuals to make sense of their place in society. As historians, we can use these images, alongside texts like pamphlets and newspapers, to better understand the social and cultural context in which they were produced and consumed.