Zweispänner, ein Fass transportierend, fährt einen Hang hinab 

Peter von Hess created this pencil drawing, "Two-Horse Team Transporting a Barrel Down a Slope," sometime in the first half of the 19th century. Von Hess, who came from a family of artists, was working during a period when Romanticism and nascent nationalism were on the rise. He spent much of his career producing battle scenes and genre paintings, often focusing on military subjects and scenes from everyday life. This drawing, depicting a rural scene, reflects the Romantic era's idealization of nature and the common person. However, it's worth considering the labor involved in such a scene: the physical strain on the horses, the labor of the driver, and the implied social structures that necessitate this work. We might ask ourselves: whose labor is being represented, and how does the drawing obscure or highlight the realities of rural life? The drawing invites us to reflect on the idealized versus the lived experiences of people in this period.