Noord Hollandsche Jagers 1835 - 1850

Curator: Oh, there’s something so wistful about this piece. Almost a quiet, mournful pride, if that makes sense. Editor: It does! It’s got a certain somberness, despite the soldier’s erect posture and precise dress. We're looking at "Noord Hollandsche Jagers," which roughly translates to "North Holland Hunters." It's attributed to Albertus Verhoesen and believed to have been created sometime between 1835 and 1850. Curator: It's really delicate. Tell me more about how it was made... I'm loving the colour palette, and its delicacy is striking. Editor: This is a print, likely based on a drawing that involved pencil, ink, and watercolour washes. And that lightness probably reflects its original purpose – these prints served as illustrations of military costumes and were bound in volumes! Curator: Costume! Of course, there’s something so deliberate and almost performative about his dress, even if the stance suggests… waiting. He's literally shouldering the weight of expectation, maybe. His green coat, those proud lines… even his tall hat! And yet, that melancholic eye seems to betray that stiff posture. What might all this 'uniform' really signify? Editor: Well, military garb is such rich territory for symbols! Beyond simple identification, the specific cut, colour, and ornamentation broadcast ideals of duty, allegiance, and even prowess. Green, for instance, could signify a hunter’s connection to nature, but it’s interesting how that reads alongside symbols of state. He's rooted into place but the colours around his feet suggest a natural growing… like a soldier is just an expression of something fundamentally earth-born? Or rooted in a landscape? The detail in the foliage too suggests this, right? Curator: Absolutely. It’s a dance between individual and collective identity… almost trapped, perhaps, between those things. This really pulls me in close, and it’s like a poem or small, profound novel compressed into the single frame, somehow. Editor: It's truly captivating how seemingly straightforward depictions of uniforms can open up entire worlds of social and psychological meaning, even two centuries later. The image definitely sticks in my mind!