Slapende hond naar links 1808

Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk created this etching, "Slapende hond naar links," in the Netherlands during the late 18th or early 19th century. Representations of animals were increasingly popular in the era of Romanticism, and the etching medium allowed for wide distribution to a growing middle class. The image itself seems simple enough; a dog asleep on what appears to be a small patch of land. But this was also a time of great political upheaval in the Netherlands. Having been occupied by France, images of loyalty and the domestic sphere were often stand-ins for nationalistic sentiment. To further understand its cultural context, one might consider researching the print market in the Netherlands at the time. How were images sold and distributed? What kind of audience did they reach? What other kinds of images were popular at the time?