Vrouwen met takkenbossen in een bos c. 1884 - 1887

Willem Witsen sketched these women with bundles of sticks in a forest using graphite on paper. Witsen worked during a time of great social change in the Netherlands, a period marked by the rise of industrialization and urbanization. In this sketch, created sometime between 1870 and 1923, the women are partially obscured by the forest, which may symbolize the difficult and often hidden labor of rural women during this time. The sketch aesthetic lends a sense of immediacy, capturing a fleeting moment in the lives of these women. It is likely that this work, which is now held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, critiques the Romantic style of Dutch art. Historians of art consider aspects of the lives of everyday people, and other such social factors, to better understand the role that art can play in reflecting and shaping a society's values.