Twee rustende figuren naast een bospad 1788 - 1849

This drawing, "Twee rustende figuren naast een bospad", was made by Johan Christiaan Willem Safft. During the late 18th and early 19th centuries, landscape art was often entwined with ideas of national identity and the picturesque. Safft's drawing is no exception. It depicts two figures resting by a forest path, seemingly at peace within the Dutch landscape. This imagery can be read through the lens of Romanticism, a movement that valued emotion, nature, and the individual experience. However, one might also question who these figures are, and what their relationship is to the land. Are they landowners, or laborers? Their presence evokes questions of access, ownership, and the complex relationship between people and the natural world. It asks us to consider how landscape art both reflects and shapes our understanding of belonging and identity.