Festivities in Amsterdam – Martin Monnickendam, 1904

FESTIVITIES AT THE PALEIS VOOR VOLKSVLIJT, AMSTERDAM 1904

“Huldefeest ter herdenking v/h 25-jarig verblijf v. H.M. de Koningin Moeder in Nederland. Paleis voor Volksvlijt. Feest-Markt op 4, 5 en 6 Februari 1904”. Colour lithograph designed by Martin Monnickendam and printed by L. van Leer & Co. in Amsterdam in 1904. Size 98.5 × 227 cm.

Martin Monnickendam (1874–1943) designed this large poster for a three-day Grand Fête at Amsterdam’s Paleis voor Volksvlijt.. The event took place on 4, 5 and 6 February 1904 and formed part of the celebrations marking the twenty-fifth anniversary of Queen Mother Emma’s arrival in the Netherlands.

Rather than depicting the building itself, Monnickendam chose to evoke the spectacle awaiting visitors. Almost the entire height of the poster is filled with a dense, exuberant crowd. At the top, Queen Mother Emma rides through a street decorated with Dutch flags in an open carriage, accompanied by a lady from her entourage. Mounted attendants escort the carriage, while policemen appear to struggle to keep the curious spectators at a distance.

Further down, the procession merges almost imperceptibly into the entertainment of the fair. A clown appears among the crowd, alongside elegantly dressed ladies, a man in traditional costume and a figure wearing a red fez. The throng seems to continue beyond the edges of the image.

The Paleis voor Volksvlijt provided an ideal setting for such an event. The monumental glass exhibition building on Frederiksplein had been one of Amsterdam’s most striking landmarks since its opening in 1864. For decades, exhibitions, concerts, balls, theatrical performances, bazaars and large public events attracted thousands of visitors. After the devastating fire of 1929, the building disappeared entirely from Amsterdam’s cityscape.

Measuring almost a metre wide and more than two metres high, Monnickendam’s poster itself must likewise have been a spectacular presence in the streets of Amsterdam. Its bold areas of colour and teeming crowd make it a remarkable example of early twentieth-century Amsterdam advertising. More than simply an announcement for a fair, it is a poster designed to sell the promise of a great metropolitan spectacle.

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