Abdij La Ramée Possibly 1675 - 1679

Abdij La Ramée is a drawing made with pen in brown ink by Constantijn Huygens II in the 17th century. Huygens was a Dutch nobleman, and his art reflects the world of the Dutch elite during the Golden Age. During this time, the Netherlands was undergoing significant social and political transformation, marked by increasing urbanization, trade, and the rise of a powerful merchant class. This drawing captures a scene of everyday life, perhaps while on a noble's travels. The setting is an abbey, a place typically associated with religious life, but here it's depicted as a site of transit. We see carriages, tents, and figures resting, suggesting a temporary encampment. What feelings does this ordinary scene evoke for you? A feeling of travel, a sense of longing? Huygens invites us to reflect on the intersection of the secular and the sacred, the transient and the permanent, in the context of 17th-century Dutch society.