New Year's Greeting Card 1806

Curator: This is "New Year's Greeting Card," an engraving dating back to 1806 by Joseph Bergler the Younger, currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: What strikes me immediately is the curious pairing of figures – a young man and a rather stout little dog. There’s a quaint formality to the scene. Curator: Indeed. This print offers us a fascinating glimpse into early 19th-century social customs surrounding New Year greetings. Consider the tradition of genre painting. Editor: The dog is charmingly earnest. It almost reads as an emblem of loyalty, standing next to a sign. Curator: The text on that sign the dog is guarding roughly translates to “Wisher of a Happy New Year.” This reflects a historical shift, doesn't it? Away from overt aristocratic patronage to broader cultural dissemination of such images. Editor: That dog has such soulful eyes. Perhaps it represents domestic virtues, a gentle contrast to any political upheavals of the time. Is the young man intended as the artist? Curator: It's possible. What makes this image relevant to social history is its availability through prints to a larger public—marking the emergence of art as a commodity and the expansion of middle-class values. Editor: The classical urn adds a touch of timelessness—linking a contemporary greeting to broader traditions of artistic patronage. It's fascinating how visual elements weave together like threads of time, inviting one to consider our continuous relation to the past. Curator: Precisely. Images such as these acted as vectors for evolving social structures, giving shape to identity and the new rituals of that period. Editor: Looking at it more closely has certainly enriched my perspective, it is curious to notice how seemingly straightforward scenes like these have much deeper layers of meaning than meet the eye at first glance.