Landschap met ruïne en herderin met vee 1732 - 1776

Gilles Demarteau created this ink drawing of a landscape with a ruin and shepherdess with cattle. Demarteau, living in a time of aristocratic rule, offers us a peek into the idealized pastoral life, a popular theme that often glossed over the harsh realities faced by the working class. Here, the crumbling ruin serves not as a symbol of decay or social commentary, but as a picturesque backdrop to the shepherdess and her cattle. The drawing invites us to appreciate the aesthetic beauty of a romanticized rural scene, rather than question the structures of power at play. Are we, as viewers, being positioned within a specific social fantasy? Do we find ourselves momentarily complicit in an aesthetic rendering of the world that actively obscures real-world issues? The drawing thus presents a dual experience: a surface of bucolic tranquility, and a subtext of social and economic disparities quietly veiled beneath.