Twee kinderen met een kinderwagen 1809

This print, made in September 1811 by Jacob Ernst Marcus, presents two children with a stroller woven from wicker. The stroller, an early version of the modern pram, speaks of nurture and protection, a mobile cradle safeguarding innocence. Consider the 'basket' motif, an ancient symbol. In antiquity, it appears in tales of infants set adrift, such as Moses in his papyrus basket, rescued and destined for greatness. Similarly, Romulus and Remus were abandoned in a basket on the Tiber, only to be found by a she-wolf, thus founding Rome. The child in Marcus’s stroller is not abandoned, yet the shape reminds us of vulnerability, of potential and the unknown future. Such imagery taps into our collective memory. The basket, whether of reeds or wicker, becomes a vessel of fate, evoking deep-seated emotions tied to beginnings and the cyclical nature of life itself.