Als gij daar Reintje zitten ziet [(...)] 1861 - 1929

Curator: Oh, my. This chromolithograph titled "Als gij daar Reintje zitten ziet [(...)]" immediately transports me to my childhood. It's busy, colorful—like a page torn from a well-loved storybook, but a bit faded. Editor: Faded, yes. And printed. It's also titled 'New Dutch Children's Prints', created sometime between 1861 and 1929 by Albertus Willem Sijthoff. There’s a real mass-produced, material quality about it. Meant for many eyes, for a low cost. The layout shows an intentional ordering, a grid composed of 16 discrete panels. Curator: A menagerie of creatures. Birds mostly. But also sheep, bison... There's a sort of playful didacticism. The captions, like snippets of old rhymes, try to impart moral lessons through observing these animals, which suggests both a fascination and an instructional purpose. Editor: Exactly! These panels offer insights into the nineteenth-century printing techniques for mass consumption, while also delivering an idealized view of rural life through readily accessible imagery, presented affordably. Each panel mimics an oil painting – only achievable through mechanisation, craft and an acute understanding of material culture. The publisher Sijthoff knew the business well! Curator: Yes, this lithograph encapsulates this period’s intersection of affordable artistry and instruction. To look at each little picture makes me consider childhood itself: wondrous, a bit rough around the edges. A learning ground – fertile with images! Editor: It really reflects a world expanding in industrial capability – making production ever cheaper – through the proliferation of printed ephemera. The details reveal the artist’s, and the printer's hand... literally creating a new image culture! Curator: This lithograph is an artifact of material production, yes, but it sparks wonder for children as its viewers, or even us as its more critical and contemporary audience! Editor: Agreed! And isn't it lovely when something created for broad consumption generates personal and quite wonderful reflections?