Kinderen, hier zult gy bevinden, / Meer dan twee tegenstrydige dingen 1825 - 1838

Curator: Editor: Here we have "Kinderen, hier zult gy bevinden, Meer dan twee tegenstrydige dingen" by T.L. Thompson, a print from between 1825 and 1838. It looks like a sheet of comic-strip style images, but the scenes are curious and the style so... rudimentary. What do you make of this print? Curator: The visual field is rigorously compartmentalized, isn’t it? Each narrative tableau, framed and self-contained. Observe the stark delineation of form—figure against ground, positive and negative space articulated with utmost clarity. The medium, a simple print, seems almost pedagogical in its starkness. Notice how the limited palette further enhances the formal properties of the artwork. Editor: Pedagogical how? Do you mean in terms of the arrangement of the vignettes on the page? Curator: Precisely. Consider how the formal arrangement guides the viewer’s eye. The succession of images creates a visual rhythm, almost a didactic sequencing meant to instruct. There is no painterly softness to the medium of print. What purpose could that rigidity have served? What meanings can you derive from this visual structure alone, quite apart from what the narrative content seems to indicate? Editor: I see what you mean! Ignoring the subject matter for a moment, each scene functions almost as a block or shape which builds to a gridded overall image...almost like a lesson in perspective and space, divorced from emotional content. I’m beginning to see it. Thanks. Curator: You’re welcome. This is the strength of the formal approach: reducing the image to shapes and structures reveals intentionality even beyond subject matter.