Zijkant van een boerderij c. 1889 - 1890

Willem de Zwart made this etching, titled 'Zijkant van een boerderij', using black ink on paper. De Zwart was a Dutch artist who lived through a period of significant social change. The Netherlands was becoming increasingly industrialized and urbanized, and there was a growing awareness of the divide between the wealthy urban elite and the rural poor. The image depicts a farmhouse that seems modest. It evokes a sense of simplicity and connection to the land. In the Netherlands at the time, there was a growing interest in rural life and traditions, as a response to industrialization. Artists like De Zwart focused on rural landscapes and scenes of everyday life in the countryside. Were they simply documenting rural life, or also idealizing it as a sort of refuge from the modern world? To understand the social and cultural context of this work more fully, we could research the history of rural life in the Netherlands during this period.