Staande man met boek 1710 - 1772

Petrus Johannes van Reysschoot sketched this standing man with a book, using chalk, sometime in the 18th century. The sitter’s clothing, hairstyle, and confident pose speak to his high social standing in the Dutch Republic of the time. The book in his hand is not a religious text. Instead, it represents the cultural capital that solidified the elite status of citizens in the Netherlands. During this period the Dutch Republic was governed by wealthy civilians rather than by an aristocratic court, and so the display of personal and intellectual accomplishment was essential to self-representation. The image shows how the Dutch Golden Age created new possibilities for artists to depict a wider variety of people and how, in turn, the cultural climate and its institutions were shaped by such imagery. To understand this drawing better, we might turn to sources like period literature, fashion studies, and political histories to understand the values and structures that shaped the sitter’s identity and determined the artist's choices.