Gevel 1893

Curator: This is "Gevel," a piece made in 1893 by George Hendrik Breitner, currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It's crafted using drawing, print, textile and paper with watercolors. Editor: It appears to be a handwritten or printed document, with faded ink and various handwritten markings. I wonder, what stands out to you in this particular work? Curator: The document itself points to several intertwined social issues: accessibility to information, economic policy, and potentially literacy rates of the period. I see a stark reminder of how systems of taxation and law were not neutral, but instruments that impacted different classes and social groups unequally. Who had access to legal advice? Who understood the small print? How did the cost of stamps and legal documents affect small businesses or the working class? Editor: So, you see the document not just as an artifact, but as a snapshot of social power dynamics at play? Curator: Exactly. The dry, bureaucratic language becomes evidence of a social contract, but one that inherently privileges those already empowered. Do you think someone from the lower class would easily decipher all of this? Editor: I imagine that even deciphering all that script must have presented challenges for many back then. Thank you for making me think about that contrast—official documentation versus lived experience of different classes in Dutch society at that time.