Boslandschap met houthakkers 1881

Ludovic Mendes Monsanto made this print of a forest landscape with woodcutters using etching. Monsanto produced this artwork in a Western European context where industrialization and urbanization were on the rise. The image creates meaning through the opposition of nature and labor. The Dutch landscape tradition often idealizes nature, but here, the presence of the woodcutters hints at the changing relationship between humans and the environment, showing them both working and changing the land. Landscape art in the 19th century engaged with social issues like the rise of industrialization. Artists and intellectuals wondered about the impact of these changes on society. Was it progress, or a loss of something essential? Understanding the social and institutional context, through archival research, of art like this helps us interpret how it comments on its own time. The meaning of art always depends on the context in which it was made.