Abklatsch van de krijttekening op pagina 3 c. 1887 - 1892

Willem Witsen made this transfer of a chalk drawing, sometime between 1880 and 1923, held today in the Rijksmuseum. The ghostly image here asks us to consider the place of the sketch in artistic training and the institutions that support it. In 19th century Europe, art academies emphasized drawing as the foundation for all other artistic endeavors. Students spent countless hours copying from casts of classical sculptures before being allowed to paint or sculpt on their own. Witsen’s work reflects this emphasis on drawing and we can think about what it means to reproduce a drawing. Is this a way of preserving it or making it more widely available? And what does it mean to see a drawing as a finished work of art? By studying the archives of art academies and the writings of artists and critics, we can gain a deeper understanding of the social and institutional forces that shaped artistic production in the 19th century.