Tsaar Peter de Grote op het scheepswerfterrein van de VOC in Amsterdam 1876

Johan Conrad Greive made this print of Tsar Peter the Great at the VOC shipyard in Amsterdam. Although undated, it was probably made in the second half of the 19th century, long after the event it depicts. The print commemorates Peter the Great's visit to the Netherlands in 1697, when he came to study shipbuilding. The Dutch Republic was a major maritime power at the time, and the VOC, or Dutch East India Company, was a symbol of its global reach and commercial success. But Greive made this image at a time when the Netherlands was looking back to its former glory days. How were the Dutch to understand their place in a world now dominated by other empires? Images like this are thus important historical documents, telling us not only about the past but also about how later generations chose to remember it. By looking at the archives of institutions like the VOC, and the changing artistic styles and social functions of images, we can better understand the complex relationship between art, memory, and national identity.