Het dorp Heicop 1735

Cornelis Pronk rendered this drawing of the village Heicop in pen and gray ink sometime in the first half of the 18th century. Pronk was a draughtsman in the service of wealthy patrons, commissioned to record topographical views of cities, country houses, and landscapes in the Netherlands. What was the public role of these images at the time? The answer lies in the economic structure of the Dutch Republic. During the 17th and 18th centuries, an urban patriciate of merchants and financiers invested their wealth in country estates and gardens. Pronk's drawings were collected as documents of ownership and status. This drawing might appear to be a simple record of a rural village, but it speaks to the social conditions that shaped artistic production in the Netherlands. The historian can use estate records and other archival sources to reconstruct the world in which the artwork was made.