Hier ziet ge, ô jeugd het boeren leeven, / Ook beesten die ons voordeel geven, / Zy strekken beide ons tot vreugd, / In werkzaamheid, gepaard met deugd 1831 - 1854

This uncut, hand-colored broadsheet was printed by Erve H. Rynders, likely in the late 18th century, using woodcut and letterpress techniques. The composition is structured into a grid of twenty vignettes, each a small tableau of rural life. The scenes are simple, yet each contains a didactic verse. The layout encourages a semiotic reading, where each image operates as a signifier. The figures, rendered in simplified forms and punctuated by limited use of color, become symbols representing labor, virtue, and the natural order. The scenes, framed in such a rigid structure, present a vision of the countryside as an ordered space where humans and animals work in concert. It presents the countryside as an ordered moral and social universe, a kind of visual manual of ideal conduct. Look closely at the arrangement and the relationship between text and image. Does it feel harmonious, or is there a tension between the two? Broadsheets like these were not just decorative, but tools for shaping a worldview.