Kinder-deugden en gebreken

This undated print, "Children's Virtues and Defects," was made by Jacob Plügger. Each of the sixteen panels depicts a scene of everyday life, illustrating a virtue or a vice. We can see here a legacy of the Enlightenment’s faith in reason and education, and the effort to codify and instill civic values. This didactic print likely reflects the social and cultural life of the Netherlands. Its small size suggests it may have been part of a larger book or pamphlet intended for wide circulation, and the title’s explicit moralizing evokes the strictures of Dutch Calvinism. The artist and publisher played a role in the cultural institutions that sought to shape public morality and promote social cohesion. To better understand this print, we might consult the archives of Dutch publishers and educational institutions. Considering such historical and social contexts allows us to better understand this work's meaning.