Marie het ongehoorzame meisje 1894 - 1959

Editor: So, here we have "Marie het ongehoorzame meisje," or "Marie the disobedient girl", dating roughly from 1894 to 1959. It's a print from the Rijksmuseum collection. It reminds me a bit of a Victorian moral story told through a comic strip. What's your take on its historical significance? Curator: It’s interesting you see that "Victorian moral story" aspect. Looking at this through a historical lens, it is fair to say this artwork operates within the tradition of didactic popular imagery. How do you think prints like this one might have functioned in shaping social norms, particularly around childhood and gender, at the time they circulated? Editor: Well, each little scene seems to show Marie doing something 'naughty' and then facing some consequence. Perhaps it’s aimed at families, teaching children how to behave, and mothers how to discipline. Did art often function this explicitly as social instruction? Curator: Absolutely. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, we see the rise of mass media and visual culture being employed very deliberately in the project of nation-building and shaping individual subjectivities. Consider who the intended audience was, where they purchased their readings, or what the broader network of moralizing pamphlets was for its time. What societal expectations do you notice being upheld or challenged through the illustration and its corresponding Dutch captioning? Editor: That is interesting. Thinking about it now, what strikes me most is less the challenge, and more how deeply ingrained these types of social structures were in everyday life and how that transferred into the media of the time. It makes you think about how things have changed, and how they've stayed the same. Curator: Precisely! That's where the lasting impact lies. It serves as a potent reminder of how visual media actively contributed to shaping behavior. I agree – we also see many of the same cultural concepts alive today in new forms. Thanks for helping me explore that further!