Kaat Mossel en Ruige Keet (Kate Mussel and Rough Kate): A Satire on Rotterdam's Pro-Orange Faction

This hand-colored etching mocks Rotterdam's political divisions during the Dutch Patriot period. Two female figures—personifications of rival factions—flank the tricolor flag of the Dutch Republic. The rendering of working-class women as political actors reflects the print tradition of Gillray and Rowlandson, where caricature sharpened political ridicule. Such prints, mass-produced and distributed, functioned as visual newspapers for the semi-literate public, establishing conventions of exaggeration and grotesque humor that would flow directly into the emerging comic press of the nineteenth century.