Fabel van de kikker die zo groot als een koe wilde zijn c. 1830

Eugène Verboeckhoven created this print, "Fable of the Frog Who Wanted to Be as Big as an Ox," using etching. Verboeckhoven, living through significant political and social changes in Belgium, often depicted animals in ways that subtly commented on human behavior and society. Here, the fable, likely inspired by Aesop, presents frogs attempting to inflate themselves to the size of an ox, a clear critique of vanity and ambition. The ox embodies a kind of pastoral stability against which the frogs’ aspirations seem absurd. Consider the social hierarchy being mirrored: the ‘natural’ order of the farm, with its implicit class structure, being disrupted by the frogs’ futile efforts. This resonates with the era’s anxieties about social mobility and the challenges to traditional roles. The print invites us to reflect on our own desires for social climbing. Are we, like the frogs, inflating ourselves to unsustainable proportions in pursuit of status?