Fremstillinger for børn 1790

Editor: This is *Fremstillinger for børn* (Illustrations for Children) created around 1790 by Johann Gottlieb Friedrich. It’s an etching, with several little scenes, almost like panels from a very old comic strip. There’s a definite old-world charm, but something feels a little… distant about it? What catches your eye, what’s your take on this print? Curator: Distant, you say? Perhaps that’s the 18th century gently wafting over us! It feels, to me, like peering into a dollhouse, or a particularly well-behaved dream. Each scene is carefully staged, you know? I imagine Friedrich carefully choosing which snippets of childhood to showcase and imprint. Think about it – the budding awareness and emotions experienced when saying farewell for a long time… It is more of a narrative mosaic than one single event. I do wonder, are these individual moments, or pieces of one larger tale? Editor: A narrative mosaic...I like that! So, it's less about one big story, and more about… childhood feelings captured in time? What does it mean that it's for children? Curator: Precisely! What Friedrich chooses *to* show—a mixture of formal instruction, theatrical play, wistful farewells—and crucially, *how* he frames it. Does it strike you as genuinely capturing a child’s perspective or an adult’s view on childhood? What would an actual child think, do you imagine? Editor: That’s a great question...I can see now that it looks more like a polished idea of childhood, carefully curated by an adult. But why show it like that, and not for what it is? Curator: Maybe that answers the question, doesn’t it? Maybe to show its true form we’d need the actual child. Food for thought! Editor: Definitely. It really flips how I was seeing it at the beginning. Thanks.