Hier kunt g'o lieve jeugd! een zestal kunstgebouwen, / Tot uw verlusting, in deze prent beschouwen 1806 - 1858

Editor: This is "Hier kunt g'o lieve jeugd! een zestal kunstgebouwen, / Tot uw verlustiging, in deze prent beschouwen" a print made sometime between 1806 and 1858 by Willem Carl Wansleven. It is an engraving depicting various cityscapes in separate panels. The images look almost like scenes from a storybook! What draws your eye, and how do you interpret this work? Curator: The seemingly innocent storybook quality belies a deeper purpose. I am drawn to consider these cityscapes through the lens of nationhood and identity formation in the Romantic era. Wansleven produced this print during a period of immense social and political upheaval, when ideas of national identity were being actively constructed and promoted. How do you think these images may relate to these grand narratives? Editor: Well, they depict very different locations; that top right panel looks like an idealized rural landscape, and the panel at the bottom looks like an imperial monument of some sort. Curator: Exactly! Think about the role that these kinds of images – idealized landscapes, historical cityscapes, imposing monuments – played in fostering a shared sense of belonging and pride within a population. Consider, too, who had access to such images and who was excluded, and how this piece explicitly targets the youth. Wansleven seems to be participating in the construction of a Dutch identity, offering an idealized vision of the nation's history and present. It is like carefully curated historical accounts, presenting a particular version of "Dutchness". Editor: So it's less a collection of pleasant views, and more about shaping perception and creating a shared past? Curator: Precisely! Looking at art of the past as building blocks of societal consciousness. Editor: I will never look at old prints the same way. This gives me a new lens to consider artworks!