Huisbezoek 1843 - 1876

Carel Christiaan Antony Last created this lithograph, titled ‘Huisbezoek’, or ‘House Visit’, in the Netherlands. The scene depicts a formal visit, a common social ritual in 19th-century Dutch society. Such visits were crucial for maintaining social networks and demonstrating respectability. Note the strict gender roles: men clustered at the doorway, while women attend to domestic matters. The composition reflects a society highly structured by class and gender. Lithography, as a relatively new and affordable medium, allowed for wider dissemination of such social commentaries. Prints like these offer a window into the values and norms of the time. They reveal a society that was beginning to grapple with questions of modernity and tradition. To truly understand this artwork, one might consult etiquette manuals of the period, demographic studies, and histories of Dutch social life. Art like this is inseparable from its time and place.