The Latest Sneeuwballetje (A Snowball Fight)

This wood engraving depicts two men at a tavern table, one elegantly dressed in top hat and coat, the other roughly clothed. The well-dressed figure appears to be proposing a toast while the working man recoils. The print satirizes the 1863 Dutch tax increases on jenever (gin) and sugar—luxuries that affected both rich and poor but hit laborers hardest. The composition echoes the caricature tradition of Gillray and Rowlandson: social commentary through exaggerated physiognomy and class contrast. Such popular prints, often issued in numbered series on current events, bridged fine art satire and mass entertainment, establishing visual languages that would shape modern comics and editorial cartooning.