The Outbreak of the Autumn Stemming

This Dutch political print depicts a well-dressed minister operating a voting apparatus labeled "STEM BUS" (ballot box) while a woman and her shaggy dog approach to cast their votes. The cartoon satirizes mid-nineteenth-century electoral reform debates, likely referencing the exclusionary franchise restrictions of the era. Rendered in pen and ink with careful cross-hatching, the print belongs to the Northern European tradition of political satire descending from Hogarth and Gillray—one of numerous popular prints, known as Bilderbogen, that circulated throughout the Low Countries and German states. Such single-sheet satires preceded the modern comic strip, using exaggeration and visual puns to mock current affairs and public figures to audiences across social classes.