Eerste maaltijd in het nieuwe stadhuis van Amsterdam 1876

Johan Conrad Greive created this print of the “First Meal in the New Amsterdam City Hall,” using etching. This print captures a celebratory event, but also echoes the story of Dutch identity. The city hall itself was built in the mid-17th century, during the Dutch Golden Age, a period of immense wealth and cultural flourishing. The people in this print are its beneficiaries, they represent the powerful merchant class, which shaped both the economic and political landscape of the Netherlands. The Golden Age also had a darker side, built on colonial exploitation. Dutch merchants were deeply involved in the slave trade, transporting enslaved Africans to the Americas. The wealth that funded the construction of the city hall, and the feasts within it, came at the expense of human lives and suffering. This print reminds us to reflect on the complexities of the past and to question whose stories are told and whose are left out of the historical narrative.