Drie hoge bomen 1807 - 1861

This is "Three Tall Trees," an etching made by Cornelis Steffelaar, who lived in the Netherlands during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a time when Dutch art was shifting away from its historical emphasis on portraiture and genre painting. Here, the artist makes use of a detailed etching technique to create a scene of sylvan nature. The scene is made up of three trees, the central one of which is set further back in the space. These trees take up almost the entire picture plane. It's interesting to note that during this time, art academies in the Netherlands still placed emphasis on traditional landscape painting. Steffelaar may have sought to respond to the market for this type of artwork by producing this etching. We can learn more about the relationship between artists and institutions through careful archival research into the structures that supported artistic production at this time. In this way, we may come to see this simple image as contingent on its specific cultural and institutional context.