Doorkijk onder een brug met roeiboot en reiger 1831 - 1904

Arnoud Schaepkens made this etching, "View Through a Bridge with Rowing Boat and Heron," sometime in the 19th century. The image speaks to the Dutch relationship to water, leisure, and nature, all framed through the institutional presence of the built environment. The image is composed through the stone arch of a bridge. On the other side, a rowing boat drifts into view while a heron stands in the foreground. Schaepkens’s etching comes at a time when the Netherlands was consolidating its national identity, and artists turned to the local landscape to define what was unique about Dutch culture. The heron and the rowing boat, symbols of freedom and recreation, offer a progressive vision of Dutch society enjoying its natural resources. By studying the prints and drawings collected by museums, and the landscape paintings displayed in public exhibitions, we can better understand the complex dialogue between art, nature, and national identity in the Netherlands.