Een zittende hond, zich ontlastend, van voren gezien 1589 - 1657

Frans Snijders made this drawing of a seated dog relieving itself with pen and brown ink around the early 17th century in Antwerp. In the seventeenth century, the Northern and Southern Netherlands were wealthy mercantile centers. This drawing would have been made for a discerning bourgeois clientele interested in studies of animals. It’s a quick sketch with economical lines showing an unidealized view of domestic life. Snijders’ animal studies were part of a larger artistic and scientific culture in which direct observation and empirical knowledge were valued. His association with Peter Paul Rubens indicates the place of animal studies in the larger workshop production of painting. These drawings would also have served a didactic function in an era when official art academies were still nascent. The social context of art relies on the critical work of historians, who track sales records, study workshop practices, and reconstruct intellectual networks to give us a clear picture of the art world in its day.