Deez' knapen zoeken hun vermaak, / Doch ieder met eene and're zaak. / Het vrolijk spel past aan de jeugd. / Zij is geschapen tot de vreugd 1832 - 1850

Curator: This curious engraving, titled "Deez' knapen zoeken hun vermaak…" – quite a mouthful, roughly translating to "These lads seek their amusement…" – comes to us from the mid-19th century, crafted by T.J. Wijnhoven-Hendriksen. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Oh, this has such a quaint, storybook charm! It feels like peering into a series of snapshots from a bygone era. Kind of naive, almost—with a sweet simplicity. Curator: Indeed. These printed sheets served various functions: from moral instruction, to pure entertainment for children. The artist was based out of Rotterdam, during the early age of children's mass media and popular literacy. The images depict children playing—the variety of scenes quite striking, each paired with rhyming verse. Editor: I like how each small window feels almost complete, with its own contained action. But viewed together, the boys are unified through their joy of movement and the activities of their childhood. They seem very content, but there's also a subtle current of contained mischief running through some of the images, would you agree? Curator: An important element is the relation between labor and childhood "play". One panel shows a kid with the caption saying how he would rather not be cleaning and the verses of another stating his happiness to work at a table. Its message feels layered to me. It tells about different types of work. Editor: Absolutely! This work feels almost alive, doesn't it? It's that mix of mundane and extraordinary, simple acts with so much human detail packed into each little window. There's always a story wanting to break out. Curator: Considering its origins, one cannot separate this art from the rise of an imagined “Dutch Childhood,” one fueled by cultural nostalgia, but also aspirations of bourgeois social uplift. Editor: Looking at the artwork like that gives another perspective to those children's entertainment that usually have underlying moral messages to be absorbed. Curator: A lens of analysis on historical childhoods often proves interesting in a lot of genre scenes, wouldn’t you say? Editor: Undoubtedly so! That definitely added layers to my appreciation!