Spotprent op het consilium abeundi gegeven aan drie studenten van de Leidse Hogeschool, 1848 1848

This lithograph by Jan Karel Jacob de Jonge was produced in 1848 and satirizes the expulsion of three students from Leiden University. It offers a window into the turbulent social and political climate of the Netherlands during that time. De Jonge uses contrasting imagery to create meaning. On one side, we see the sorrow of the students’ parents, while on the other we see the students behaving badly in what appears to be a bar. The figure of what one assumes to be a professor looms above, almost god-like. The image comments on the rigid social structures and expectations of 19th-century Dutch society. It reflects tensions between academic authority and student behavior and between the progressive and conservative social movements. Historical societies, university archives, and period newspapers can shed light on the political context surrounding the event depicted, and the history of Leiden University and the position it occupied in Dutch society. This artwork reminds us that art is a product of its time, shaped by the social and institutional forces at play.