[Catchpenny print] N.147: Hier hebt gy het leven en bedryf van Jan de Wasscher met zyn wyf

[Catchpenny print] N.147: Hier hebt gy het leven en bedryf van Jan de Wasscher met zyn wyf - [Turnhout] - G. en V.G. [= Glenisson & Van Genechten ] - [c. 1850] - 1st edition - Print on paper - 33 x 40 cm.

Condition: Good.

One-sided printed catchpenny print (volksprent or centsprent in Dutch) with 24 drawings, executed as a woodcut and roughly coloured by hand in red, yellow and blue. Text in Dutch.

“Jan de Wasscher die zal trouwen / Maar ik vrees het zal hem rouwen” [= “Jan de Wasscher will marry / But I fear he will regret it”]. Thus begins the story that outlines the life of Jan, who immediately after the wedding day has to exchange his pants for Griet's apron and is put to work. Griet teaches him how to cook and has him mop the floor. If necessary with the help of domestic violence; the subtext of the seventh picture reads [transl.]: “Jan de Wasscher afraid of blows, Will wipe out the ashes”. And a lot of spanking is being handed out. Griet turns out to be a true 'Femdom' mistress in the spirit of Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. In the end she chases Jan with a whip.

¶ Catchpenny prints [Centsprenten] are a kind of prehistoric comics that were sold in increasing numbers from around 1600 by peddlers. According to the standard work Populaire grafiek in de Nederlanden (2014), Jan de Wasser prints were published over two centuries by 31 publishers in 50 variants, including one in which the characters are monkeys. Jan Rinke, the illustrator of the Pietje Bell children's books, made his own version around 1910.