Landschap met patrijzen after 1659

This landscape with partridges was etched by an anonymous artist. Images of the natural world are of course far from neutral. They often reflect underlying social values and cultural attitudes towards nature. In the Netherlands, where this print was made, the 17th century saw a surge of interest in naturalism among artists and scientists, as they sought to classify and understand the world around them. But who was this knowledge for? Who had the leisure to observe nature and the resources to record it? Land ownership was highly concentrated in this period. Images of the land celebrated the elite’s ownership and control of it. Prints like this one, therefore, would likely have been consumed by the wealthy urban classes as a means of vicariously engaging with the countryside, re-affirming the relationship between land, status, and power. Historians consult estate records, inventories, and other archival sources, to reveal the social structures that underpinned the creation and reception of art.