Man met een bolhoed op een fiets c. 1869

Isaac Weissenbruch sketched this gentleman on a bicycle, his head crowned by a bowler hat. This hat, seemingly simple, speaks volumes of the burgeoning bourgeoisie and their aspirations. The bowler, rising from the streets of London, became an emblem of the upwardly mobile classes. Yet, across time and geography, headwear carries profound symbolic weight. Think of the Phrygian cap, donned by revolutionaries, a symbol of freedom and rebellion. The bowler, in contrast, whispers of order and conformity, a delicate balance between individuality and societal integration. Consider, too, how forms recur: the wheel, a perfect circle. Carl Jung saw it as a mandala, a symbol of the self striving for wholeness. The bicycle wheel, then, becomes a symbol of human progress, the journey of self-discovery, a perpetual striving to reach an unattainable, perhaps illusory, center. The image, in its humble way, taps into our collective memory, reminding us that even the most modern of inventions are rooted in ancient archetypes.