Huisje met afdak 1852

August Allebé made this sketch of a house with a shed, using pen in grey ink, around the turn of the century. The image is a wonderful exercise in tone and texture, and you get the sense that the artist wasn't interested in making any grand statement. But we can still ask what kind of social and institutional pressures might have affected his artistic production. Allebé spent his career teaching at the State Academy of Fine Arts, and became its director in 1880. It was a time of debates about art education, and about what sort of art should represent the nation. Allebé's sketch is modest and intimate, but it also shows the artist's mastery of composition. We can see, perhaps, how it reflects the values of the Academy. If we want to know more about the social context of Allebé's work, we might start by looking at the archives of the State Academy, and at the writings of other artists and critics of the time.