Gezicht op Mariënbad met acht gezichten op voorname gebouwen in de stad 1833

Curator: This is "View of Mariënbad with Eight Views of Prominent Buildings in the City," an engraving made around 1833 by an anonymous artist. The print gives us multiple vignettes of this developing spa town. It reminds me of souvenir handkerchiefs! Editor: Souvenir handkerchiefs for the fashionable elite who were probably sweating in their corsets as they 'took the waters.' It has this almost naive romanticism that makes me think of delicate, faded stationery, all whispers and polite coughs. What details strike you as a materials expert? Curator: What stands out is how the engraving medium transforms the depicted buildings and landscapes. Look at the linear precision. The density of lines creating shadows, and the way each small building gets flattened to a graphical element. Editor: True! There's this flattening that almost elevates it. Mariënbad isn't just a place but a stage, a perfectly designed experience. You know, it makes me consider the economics of leisure back then and who had access to it. Curator: Absolutely. The proliferation of such prints would contribute to constructing Mariënbad as a desirable location. Marketing through materiality! Mass production catering to an emerging tourism industry. The rise of the middle class enabled a consumer market keen to see these places! Editor: It does make you think about consumption... what did it *mean* to 'own' an image like this? A pre-digital 'I was there'? Did it conjure longing in those who couldn't afford it? I can feel its appeal even now. It reminds me, I should visit the thermal baths myself sometime. Curator: Precisely. It becomes a stand-in for lived experiences, shaping aspiration through accessibly reproduced images. This single sheet becomes the landscape that creates a myth of its own, and then invites a public! It almost doesn’t matter what the true site feels like…the work performs tourism, too! Editor: Ah, and so the original transforms again, becoming an eternal destination—not merely mapped but dreamt. Now that's what I call taking the waters to a different level!