Holland of zijn Smalst (Holland at Its Narrowest)

This Dutch satirical print mocks the founding of the Amsterdam Canal Company through a map showing the Netherlands pinched absurdly thin—reduced to a narrow strip between sea and sky. On the left, caricatured figures (likely investors or politicians) clutch at the diminishing territory; on the right, Amsterdam itself appears shrunken and threatened. The artist uses cartographic distortion as visual metaphor for financial overreach or mismanagement. Executed as a wood engraving with pen work, it exemplifies the 19th-century tradition of political satire descended from Gillray and Rowlandson, where exaggeration of physical form and spatial relationships conveys economic critique. Such prints were popular in Dutch and European popular press, blending journalism, humor, and moral commentary before the rise of modern editorial cartooning and comics.