Featured Cholera art: one big puzzle to me....

A lithograph of the picture is printed in the book “Afspiegelingen” (Reflections), 1884. The name of my picture is "De bewaakster onzer Grenzen" (The guardian of our Borders ) and is the last picture in the book. Could my picture be the original of this lithograph?

 

There is a lot of information to be researched here. For now i found 1 autograph of this artist from his diary. At least we can say he called himself A.V.H.



Source (in Dutch): https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/ver_001dagb01_01/ver_001dagb01_01_0003.php

 

1832 there was a cholera epidemic in Europe; over 6000 dead in the Netherlands.
https://books.google.fr/books?id=Zf...#v=onepage&q=niederlande cholera 1832&f=false

he might have lost parentage as a child perhaps.

 

According to wikipedia there was a cholera pandemic in 1866 in the Netherlands as well:

Fourth, 1863–1875[edit]
Main article: 1863–1875 cholera pandemic
The fourth cholera pandemic of the century began in the Ganges Delta of the Bengal region and traveled with Muslim pilgrims to Mecca. In its first year, the epidemic claimed 30,000 of 90,000 Mecca pilgrims.[38] Cholera spread throughout the Middle East and was carried to Russia, Europe, Africa and North America, in each case spreading from port cities and along inland waterways.

The pandemic reached Northern Africa in 1865 and spread to sub-Saharan Africa, killing 70,000 in Zanzibar in 1869–70.[39] Cholera claimed 90,000 lives in Russia in 1866.[40] The epidemic of cholera that spread with the Austro-Prussian War (1866) is estimated to have taken 165,000 lives in the Austrian Empire, including 30,000 each in Hungary and Belgium and 20,000 in the Netherlands.[41]

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera_outbreaks_and_pandemics

 

but to what conflict "the guardian of our borders" should relate ? were they threatened by Prussia ? not France after it was protected by Belgium on the north. or was there a hidden conflict during the separation of Belgium and the Netherlands ?

 

Arnhem is not far from the German border where in 1866 the Austro-Prussian war was fought. Maybe that has something to do with it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austro-Prussian_War

 

In the book, that contains the lithograph of this picture, the following text is added:

"De Cholera is hier redster; zij doet de vijandelijke legers afdeinzen van de bedreigde grenzen. Een invasie toch is vreesselijker dan een voorbijgaande epidemie; deze doodt eenige individuën; gene treft geheel het Volk in ’t hart"

That would roughly translate in something like:

"The Cholera is the savior here. She scared the enemy's armies from the threatened borders. An invasion is worse then a transient epidemic; this will kill only individuals, the other will hit the entire people in their heart."

 

I see. when the Deutscher Bund fell apart. a big hoolabaloo or free-for-all.

 

thank you. I'm complex too...

 

a superposition in Schrödingers sense of fidness.

 

At last I have found a similar art piece with the same kind of signature. Now i am 100 % convinced my picture is of this artist. Thank you @Fid for putting me on the right path!




Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...al_opgehangen,_25_september_(29808315405).jpg

 

I just read the background story to that one, a sad and difficult decision:

https://regionaalarchiefalkmaar.wor...e-bladzijde-in-de-geschiedenis-van-het-beleg/

Sorry guys, in Dutch. It has to do with an incident in 1573 during the Dutch fight for independence against the Spanish. Suffice it to say, this hanging, though controversial even at the time, saved the lives of innocent hostages.

 

Yes, apparently our Alexander liked these morbid stories.

 

I was thinking the same. Some trauma? Or the opposite, not enough excitement in his life?

 

Alexander Ver Huell was quite popular as an artist in his younger years, but during his life that fame faded away. When he got older he became more and more a grumpy old man and locked himself in his house. He refused to celebrate his 70th birthday, because he thought he deserved a medal. He was quite a character....

This bridge over the IJssel in Doesburg (Netherlands) is now named after him:

 

Ah, that would be it, grumpy old man art!

Yes, I read that, I must have driven over it quite a few times.

 

aaaah, I felt it, a long-lost remote relative.

 

I wonder if there is a catalogue or book with his works ? or a museum with some works in Arnhem ? would be a nice journey for my wife, she worked on a cargo ship on the Rhine when she was young.