Herdenkingsprent voor de Haymarket-affaire - Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel

A symbolic lithograph by Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel commemorating the Haymarket affair through stark, geometric figures and political inscriptions.

This lithograph by Karel Petrus Cornelis de Bazel serves as a commemorative work regarding the Haymarket affair of 1886. De Bazel, a prominent Dutch architect and designer, utilised a highly stylised, symbolic visual language to address the political tensions of his era. The composition is strictly ordered, featuring a central female figure holding a child, flanked by symmetrical groups of figures who hold trumpets. The aesthetic draws upon the flat, linear qualities found in Egyptian art and early medieval manuscript illumination, which were common influences for artists associated with the Dutch Symbolist movement.

The work is framed by two distinct inscriptions in Dutch. The upper text reads, 'T bloed der martelaren is het zaad voor nieuwe stryders' (The blood of the martyrs is the seed for new fighters), while the lower text states, 'Ons zwygen zal blyken maghtiger te zyn dan ons spreken' (Our silence will prove to be more powerful than our speech). These phrases reflect the anarchist and socialist sentiments surrounding the Haymarket martyrs. The figures are rendered with a focus on geometric pattern and rhythmic repetition, rather than anatomical realism. The clothing features repeating motifs, and the background is composed of simplified, schematic tree forms. This approach removes the scene from a specific temporal setting, elevating the subject into a universal allegory of sacrifice and ideological endurance. The stark contrast between the dark, ink-heavy areas and the white paper creates a graphic clarity that is characteristic of De Bazel's work in the late nineteenth century. The print functions as a piece of political iconography, using the visual vocabulary of the period to convey a message of collective strength and the persistence of belief in the face of state authority.