Hond, staand op een stoel 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this intriguing print, Hond, staand op een stoel – Dog Standing on a Chair – with an unknown printmaking technique, sometime in the early twentieth century. The first thing I see is the stark contrast, how the dark silhouette of the dog and chair jumps out against the patterned background. There’s something about the texture, the way the ink hasn’t quite fully adhered to the page, that gives it a ghostly, almost dreamlike quality. Look at the lower left corner, where the dark ink bleeds into jagged shapes; it reminds me of a cityscape, or maybe even a pack of wolves lurking in the shadows. It’s as if the artist is inviting us to consider the animal’s perspective, elevating the dog to a position of authority, peering down at us from its perch. That single, stark line above the chair adds to the surreal quality, making me think of the way Giorgio de Chirico played with perspective and scale to create unsettling, enigmatic compositions. This print isn’t just a depiction of a dog on a chair; it’s a portal into a world of imagination.