De kleine en nieuwe Verkeerde Wereld 1806 - 1830

Curator: Alright, let’s talk about this intriguing print titled "De kleine en nieuwe Verkeerde Wereld," or "The Small and New Upside Down World," dating from somewhere between 1806 and 1830, attributed to Johan Noman. Editor: Oh, it feels like peering into someone’s delightfully strange dream journal. All these tiny, quirky scenes laid out in neat little boxes… like a visual poem about the world turned sideways. Curator: Exactly! Noman, through engraving, creates a narrative tapestry – almost a storyboard – reflecting, quite literally, an inverted reality. Notice the use of aged, toned paper that lends an antiquated aesthetic to this commentary on social or political absurdities. Editor: I am immediately drawn to the subtle color hints… Is that blood? Or am I assigning modern-day sensitivities to olde-world anxieties? But still the layout with these small frames reminds me a lot of modern-day comics. Curator: It could very well represent both, couldn't it? Given that prints like this circulated widely, these "wrong world" images held satirical bite. Some believe it critiques contemporary morals, or pokes fun at societal conventions through illogical or reversed scenarios. And calling this modern-day comics is spot on because we might be looking at proto-comic strips that gained popularity during the Romanticism era. Editor: See, I wouldn’t have gotten all that historical depth on my own! But my gut still tells me this artist felt something akin to our modern existential dread—but filtered through rabbits reading books and cats chasing after men instead of mice. A deeply Romantic sentiment, wouldn’t you agree? Curator: Precisely! And looking at Noman's romantic view you will find the technique itself quite refined for a "simple" print. The controlled lines, compositional clarity within each vignette, everything seems calculated for maximum impact. The arrangement invites you to analyze how meaning accumulates across panels. Editor: So, beyond being utterly charming, this is clearly quite cleverly subversive and carefully crafted piece. And it shows how an individual felt about an upside down world in a very turbulent time in Europe's History. Curator: Indeed. A small, "wrong" world holding big truths about its time.