Verschillende voorstellingen c. 1828 - 1913

This sheet of images by Erve Wijsmuller is made with etching, a printmaking process that uses acid to create lines on a metal plate, which is then inked and printed onto paper. The result has a direct, immediate quality, suited to the sheet's subject: everyday life in Amsterdam. Each of these vignettes shows the process of industrialization transforming the city. We see a street cleaner, a funeral, and other scenes; in the center, a crowd of people are gathered around a chalkboard, perhaps considering a new public work project. In one particularly striking image, a group of well-dressed citizens watch as a steam-powered “asphalt spuier” lays down pavement. This print invites us to consider the experience of modernity in the 19th century, the speed of change, and how labor was understood. Though mass-produced through industrial means, the etching medium gives it an intimate feeling. This tension – between the personal and the industrial – speaks to the larger contradictions of the time.