Genezen vrees 1828 - 1937

Editor: Here we have "Genezen vrees" by Oehmigke & Riemschnieder, a lithograph print from around 1828 to 1937. It's presented like a page from a children’s book or comic. It's cheerful but also has these unsettling images… what strikes you about it? Curator: Well, looking through a critical lens, it’s hard not to consider the context of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These genre paintings, often aimed at children, can reveal much about societal anxieties and the transmission of values. Consider the imagery of fear, of discipline, of childhood innocence seemingly constantly under threat. Editor: So, you see the folk art style and relate it to childhood anxieties from the period? Curator: Precisely. Who is in power, who lacks it? Who is threatened by what? Even the aesthetic choice to arrange the lithograph like a sequential narrative subtly instructs how stories should be interpreted, guiding morality. The presence of both control and anxiety points to a particular construction of childhood. What messages do you think this layout might convey? Editor: It does seem a bit like 'be good, or else,' which might reveal a very controlling parenting style during that time. Maybe adults feared children being corrupted? Curator: Exactly. These kinds of works, ostensibly innocent, can be incredibly powerful tools in shaping ideology and dictating behavior, consciously or unconsciously teaching us how we should be. Thanks for pointing out the unsettling mood, this reading exposes the relationship between power and fear.