Een boerendorp 1865 - 1875

This print, 'A Farm Village,' was created by George Lodewijk Funke in the Netherlands in the 19th century, for a series called 'New Dutch Children's Prints'. Look closely and you'll notice that it’s not just an image; it’s also a template for a children's cut-out. What does it mean to present an image of rural life as something to be literally taken apart and reassembled? This print emerged during a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization in the Netherlands. As cities grew, there was a nostalgia for a simpler, rural past. Prints like these, distributed to children, were a way of teaching them not only about rural life, but also about a certain idealised version of Dutch identity, rooted in the countryside. To understand this print better, you might look into the history of Dutch children’s literature or the development of national identity in the 19th century. Through such research, we can begin to see the cultural values that are being communicated here.