Mannen- en vrouwenkoppen en een figuur met een wandelstok Possibly 1858 - 1859

Johannes Tavenraat made this pen and brown ink drawing, titled "Heads of Men and Women and a Figure with a Walking Stick," in the Netherlands in the 19th century. The image's meaning comes not simply from the artist's hand but also from the institutions within which art is made and viewed. At the time Tavenraat made this work, art academies across Europe were standardizing the idea of what art should be. This sheet of studies reminds us that, alongside those grand official projects, artists were also encouraged to study the human form by sketching ordinary figures. Here we see images of men and women rendered in great detail, yet without idealization. These sketches are records of the artist’s focused observation, an exercise in seeing and representing his world. Art historians often turn to preliminary sketches such as this in order to understand the artist's process, and the social conditions in which art is made.