Spotprent op het zendingsfeest te Wolfheze, 1863 1863

This print was made in 1863 by Johan Michaël Schmidt Crans, showing a missionary festival in Wolfheze. It's a lithograph, meaning it was drawn on a flat stone and then printed. Lithography allowed for relatively quick reproduction, making images like this accessible to a wider audience. The lines are clean, capturing a scene of both gathering and social critique. The material itself – a humble stone, a greasy crayon – speaks volumes. It’s not high art; it's a document, a commentary. The image's strength lies in its accessibility and its reproduction, distributed to those who cared about the missionary cause, or felt implicated by its critique. This challenges the traditional idea of art as a precious object, reminding us that sometimes, the most powerful statements are made with the simplest means.