The monumental landscape from below: public statues, popular interaction and nationalism in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam

Anne Petterson

doi:10.1017/s0963926819000154

Abstract

ABSTRACT:Public monuments are considered an important tool in the nineteenth-century nation-building project. Yet while the intended (nationalist) message of the monumental landscape is often clear, the popular perception of the statues and memorials has been little problematized. This contribution analyses the popular interaction with public monuments in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam and questions whether ordinary people understood the nationalist meaning. With the help of visual sources – engravings, lithographs and the novel medium of photography – we become aware of the multilayered meanings and usages of the monuments in daily urban life, thus tackling the methodological challenge of studying the monumental landscape from below.

Highlights

Statues and memorials that celebrate national heroes or events appear to be an eye-catching phenomenon in the nineteenth-century urban environment
Nineteenth-century Amsterdam functioned as a case-study for the popular interaction with public monuments
This does not imply that Amsterdam as a capital was unique

Summary

The message and its audience

While a true statuomanie or Denkmalswut dominated big nation-states like France and Germany, the number of statues and memorials established in the Netherlands during the nineteenth century is slightly disappointing.[21]. In the case of the Rembrandt statue, a small group of prominent painters from Amsterdam and The Hague had launched the plan. Anon., Het feest van Rembrandt van Rijn, verhaald door Joris Praatvaar (Amsterdam, 1852), 3. In 1876, at the unveiling ceremony of the statue of the nineteenth-century liberal statesman Johan Rudolf Thorbecke, a barrier separated the official guests and the spectators as well.[41] In the case of the unveiling of the statue of the seventeenth-century poet Joost van den Vondel (1867) and the bust of the local physician and philanthropist Samuel Sarphati (1886), the general public was excluded from the entire event: these statues were placed in public parks that were – for the occasion – accessible only with an admission ticket.[42]. The inhabitants of Amsterdam enjoyed the buzz that came with the unveiling, and as such became involved with the ceremony, yet it remains highly uncertain whether the intended message reached these ordinary city dwellers

Claiming public space

Popular interaction in pictures

Findings

Conclusion