De Herschepping van de Kees (The Reshaping of Kees)

This Dutch etching ridicules the patriotic militia movement of the 1780s through a figure in military dress holding a pike. The title, "Van onderen beginnende" (Beginning from below), suggests social upheaval and the democratization of armed force—a threat to established hierarchy. The print belongs to the European tradition of political satire inherited from Hogarth and Gillray, where caricature and engraving served as weapons in ideological combat. The exaggerated physiognomy and costume mock both the volunteers themselves and their aspirations to political power. Such popular prints, distributed as single sheets, established visual languages of ridicule that would later shape newspaper comics and graphic satire, making the medium inseparable from struggles over class, citizenship, and national identity.