Waar men een huis van bouwt 1875 - 1903

This color lithograph, “Waar men een huis van bouwt,” or “How to build a house,” was made as part of a series of children’s prints in the Netherlands. The image creates meaning through its step-by-step visual codes, breaking down the complex labor of building a house into a set of discrete stages. The artist, I. de Haan, seems to be making a comment on the social structures of his time by representing the value and collective effort of this construction. This print might have influenced the production of craft and industry, which at this time formed part of the expanding Dutch economy. It also seems to promote a self-consciously progressive approach to the education of children. To understand it better, we might consider looking at archives of Dutch educational materials to discover how images were used to promote particular values at a time of great social and economic change. Ultimately, the meaning of this artwork is contingent on its social and institutional context.