De valsche gebrekkigen 1894 - 1959

This satirical print, ‘De valsche gebrekkigen’, looks to me like it was made with lithography and some hand coloring. It’s got these clean lines with delicate washes that feel very matter-of-fact, like it wants to tell you something straight. The whole composition is broken into these little scenes, and the coloring is fairly consistent throughout, a limited palette that feels kind of muted, but then you notice that it’s the details that make it sing. Take that top right figure hobbling along with his crutches, the simple addition of brown to his coat gives him the weight of someone with 'wealth.' The way these scenes are rendered, it reminds me of William Hogarth’s prints, the kind of social commentary that’s both critical and comic. The piece isn’t just about showing, it’s about saying something about society, about appearances versus reality, about who we think we are versus who we pretend to be. And that's where the magic happens for me, in that messy, ambiguous space where art holds up a mirror to our own contradictions.