Eva Eikhout

Speaker, presenter and writer

I have a love-hate relationship with my electric wheelchair. It is unwieldy and incredibly heavy, and it cannot get over a threshold more than 15 centimetres high. Often it feels like it’s literally weighing me down, and it comes with a whole host of preconceptions and prejudices. 

But! The great advantage is that the wheelchair brings me to the same level as other people. It protects me, and ensures I don’t get knocked over. It puts me on equal standing with others: people see me. It enables me to participate in society. 

And that is why this print spoke to me, because in my life I have also found myself at all sorts of different heights – on crutches, chairs, benches and steps – just like the little man in this print: carrying it off with style!

Lisa Westerveld

Politician and Member of the House of Representatives for PRO

We humans have always been inclined to judge others on the basis of external characteristics – people who differ from the average are seen as a spectacle. Look into the life of Jan Hannema and you will find that he performed and was exhibited, and that he enjoyed the attention. Whether he really did enjoy the attention is difficult to verify, but in any case it was certainly his height that brought opportunities and provided the family with an income. It is too easy to pretend that this sort of phenomenon belongs only in the past. We may no longer exhibit people, but let’s be honest: all too often, people with disabilities are still furtively stared at; they are the butt of jokes and ruthlessly excluded from the labour market and from our social lives. I hope this print makes us all stop, think and ask: how inclusive are we really, in our thinking and in our actions? 

Huigen Leeflang

Senior Curator of Prints

The boy posing here in a three-piece suit is 13-year-old Jan Hannema (1839–1878). His position, on the chair, reveals his short stature. Following in the footsteps of Charles Stratton a.k.a. General Tom Thumb, a successful American who was a year older than Hannema, the young Frisian performed under the name Admiral Tom Pouce. Both stage names derive from the hero of the old folktale Tom Thumb, and in France, tom pouce was used for all kinds of small objects, from folding umbrellas to little waffles. 

Both Stratton and Hannema achieved international fame as performers. This portrait print of L’Amiral Tom Pouce was made in Turin during his tour of Italy in 1852–1853. His performances, in which he played a wide range of roles – from the devil to Madame de Pompadour to a doctor – were accompanied by music specially composed for him by an Italian composer. Hannema enjoyed great success with these shows. The Italian portrait print served as promotional material and as a souvenir. A note on the back indicates that this copy was bought after a performance in Haarlem in July 1854. 

Images of Jan Hannema are still successful as a marketing tool, as demonstrated by the typical Dutch tompouce pastries bearing his portrait that are sold in his home town of Franeker in the run-up to his birthday, on 23 April. 

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