Twee mannen slepend met een kar c. 1651 - 1655

Harmen ter Borch made this drawing of two men hauling a cart with pen and brown ink sometime in the Dutch Golden Age. At this time the Netherlands was a republic, unique in Europe for its burgeoning capitalist economy and relative religious tolerance. Ter Borch was the son of a painter, and belonged to a large artistic family in Zwolle. His detailed genre scenes were popular with the middle class, but here we see a quick sketch of working-class figures. What does it mean to produce a quick sketch like this? Does this mean the working class are not considered fit to be the sole subject of a finished artwork? Are they only fit to be viewed as a group? To understand this drawing better, we might look to contemporary social histories. Archival records of Zwolle could show us how labourers were viewed in Dutch society. Careful consideration of the conditions of artistic production, reception, and the visual codes of the day is essential to the job of the art historian.