Spotprent op Nederlandse dichters 1841

This is Gerhard Thomas Mohrman's print, "Spotprent op Nederlandse dichters," whose date is unknown, but it likely came out of the mid-19th century. Mohrman, working in the Netherlands, deployed caricature to critique the cultural and literary figures of his time. The print presents a procession of Dutch poets riding a menagerie of animals towards Helicon, the mountain of the Muses in Greek mythology. But rather than a dignified ascent, the scene is chaotic, almost comical, suggesting a satirical view of the contemporary literary scene. Issues of class and status are interwoven, as the poets, presumably middle class men, are quite literally riding roughshod. It's hard not to think of the work of Honoré Daumier here. Mohrman seems to share with Daumier an interest in the lives of the bourgeoisie, and a willingness to use popular print to critique the social and political issues of his day. The emotional resonance lies in the tension between aspiration and reality, between the high ideals of poetry and the messy realities of human endeavor. The print challenges us to consider who gets to define culture and literature, and at what cost.