J.H. Furnée

'Le bon public de La Haye': local governance and the audience in the French opera in The Hague, 1820-1890

In nineteenth-century The Hague, the French opera performances in the Royal Theatre were the most important occasions during the winter season at which men and women from almost all social ranks experienced a strong sense of social cohesion in a common leisure pursuit, albeit one in which social hierarchies were clearly demarcated. This article analyses the changing social composition of the opera audience through analysis of subscription and admission records, and evaluates the changing composition of the audience in relation to changes in taste, theatre architecture and policy. Although it was almost impossible to exploit financially and was also a constant object of political, musical and moral criticism, the French opera succeeded in maintaining its central position in The Hagues musical and social life throughout the nineteenth century.

‘Our Living Museum of Nouveautés’: Visual and Social Pleasures in The Hague’s Shopping Streets, 1650–1900

Mrs Bos, a fictional character in a novel set in The Hague and dating from 1886, was a self-confident woman. Her husband, a respectable though not well-off major, cherished the tranquillity of his heavenly home. Mrs Bos, however, was determined to do everything she could to ensure that her two marriageable daughters found good husbands. Thus the family had to be ‘seen’: at the fashionable summer concerts in The Hague woods, on the aristocratic beach terrace of Scheveningen, in the Theatre francais, but also on the city’s main squares and streets. Every day from two till four o’clock Mrs Bos joined the daily promenade on the city’s main shopping streets, encouraging her sweet angels to make eyes at respectable officers and civil servants. Even earlier in the day the shopping streets were their natural terrain: ‘At half past ten in the morning Meme and her daughters already furnished the most elegant streets with their presence, ‘for shopping’ [‘om te winkelen’], as they say in The Hague.’1

Shopping Streets and Cultures from a Long-Term and Transnational Perspective

In the first decades of the nineteenth century, comparing the shopping streets of Paris and London became a stock element of English and French travel accounts. In 1810, the French writer J. B. Barjaud, like many of his compatriots, praised the ‘grandeur’ and the ‘magnificence’ of London shops as ‘one of the particular characteristics’ of the British capital. In turn, English travellers were deeply impressed by the ‘brilliant’ arcades and the ‘marvellous’ merchandise in the Palais-Royal. Travellers also praised the increasing exchange of modern retail innovations between the two capitals. In 1819, J. N. Quatremere de Roissy enthusiastically reported how only recently Paris’s shopkeepers had started ‘copying’ the exteriors, ornamentations and ‘general arrangements’ of their English neighbours. Yet this constant competition fuelled sneering comments as well. As French travellers generally looked down upon the small number of attractive shopping arcades in London, English writers were happy to scorn the lack of brilliant bazaars in the French capital.1

Inzicht door onderdompeling Een reactie op Bart Van de Putte, Henk de Smaele en Dirk Jan Wolffram

Giving a detailed account of the social history of The Hague’s most prominent sites of civilised leisure – the gentlemen’s clubs, the zoo, the Royal Theatre and the seaside resort of Scheveningen – Plaatsen van beschaafd vertier demonstrates how the constant struggle for social in- and exclusion structured the daily lives of upper and middle class men and women in The Hague in the nineteenth century. In response to Bart Van de Putte, Jan Hein Furnee argues that extensive quantitative analyses of ‘class’ and ‘social class’ show that objective class stratifications based on wealth and/or occupation are important tools, but at most semi-finished products for historical research. Furnee fully agrees with Henk de Smaele’s objection that his study would have benefitted from a more in-depth reflection on the ways in which shifting patterns in women’s freedom of movement in urban spaces were related to their political and economic emancipation. In response to Dirk Jan Wolffram, Furnee repeats some examples given in his book that show how political practices in places of leisure impacted upon local and national politics, even though this did not directly contribute to a linear process of increasing political participation and representation. Aan de hand van een gedetailleerde analyse van de sociale geschiedenis van herenen burgersocieteiten, de dierentuin, de Koninklijke Schouwburg en badplaats Scheveningen demonstreert Plaatsen van beschaafd vertier hoe de constante strijd om sociale in- en uitsluiting het dagelijks leven van mannen en vrouwen uit de hogere en middenstanden in negentiende-eeuws Den Haag beheerste. In reactie op Bart Van de Putte betoogt Jan Hein Furnee dat grondige kwantitatieve analyses van ‘class’ en ‘social class’ uitwijst dat objectieve sociale stratificaties op basis van welstand en/of beroep voor historisch onderzoek weliswaar zeer nuttig en zelfs noodzakelijk, maar uiteindelijk slechts een halffabrikaat kunnen zijn. Furnee geeft Henk de Smaele volledig gelijk dat zijn onderzoek zou hebben geprofiteerd van een meer diepgaande reflectie op de manier waarop verschuivingen in de ruimtelijke bewegingsvrijheid van vrouwen kunnen worden gerelateerd met politieke en economische emancipatie. In reactie op Dirk Jan Wolffram herneemt Furnee enkele voorbeelden uit zijn studie waaruit blijkt hoe politieke praktijken in plaatsen van vertier van invloed waren op de lokale en nationale politiek, zonder echter te resulteren in een lineair proces van toenemende politieke participatie en representatie.