Nieuwjaarswens van de Amsterdamse nachtwacht voor het jaar 1860 1859 - 1860

This ‘New Year's Wish of the Amsterdam Night Watch for the Year 1860’ was made by Friedrich Robert Prinz as a printed greeting for the citizens of Amsterdam. It gives us a glimpse into the social fabric of the city at this time. Prinz’s print is replete with visual codes, cultural references, and historical associations of mid-19th century Amsterdam. He was working in a period where the Dutch collective identity was being refashioned. Looking closely, we see vignettes of Amsterdam’s architecture, embedded in decorative flourishes, surrounding the poem by A. L. Vinkek. It is no accident that Prinz chose to represent those buildings, as the physical structures are imbued with collective meaning. As art historians, it is our task to understand and decode those meanings by looking at resources like city records, newspapers, and other visual material. By examining these resources, we can better understand the social and institutional context of the work and its place in Amsterdam's cultural history.