Portret van Johann Albrecht Breuning 1730 - 1733

This print, whose artist we don’t know, is a color lithograph calendar in three parts, likely made around 1900. Note the choice of process: lithography was a favored printing technique for commercial art due to its relative speed and low cost. The way that color has been applied here – flat, graphic, without tonal variation – speaks to the influence of Japanese prints, which were all the rage at the time. As for the imagery, we have three groupings of birds and calendars that show August, November and December. The zoological theme is echoed in the stylized depictions of monkeys, cats, and other fauna. We don't know exactly who this calendar was made for, but the artist seems interested in making the natural world orderly, knowable, even available for purchase. This print asks us to consider how humans classify and consume nature, turning it into a series of monthly grids.