Heuvelachtig landschap met een bruggetje over een rivier 1637 - 1679

Philips Augustijn Immenraet made this washed pen drawing of a hilly landscape with a bridge over a river in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-17th century. Drawings like this played an important role in the art world of the Dutch Golden Age. Artists made them as studies for paintings, independent works of art to be sold in the market, or as part of albums. Landscape imagery rose to prominence during this period as the Dutch Republic grew in economic and political power. The level of detail in this image suggests that it was made as an independent work of art for sale. The drawing served as a kind of commodity that could be exchanged in the art market, an institution that helped to shape the production and reception of art during this time. To understand the social and institutional contexts of art like this, historians can look at things such as economic data about the art market, artists' biographies, and the records of art academies and other institutions.