Twee schetsen van figuren 1847 - 1899

This small pencil drawing at the Rijksmuseum is entitled 'Two Sketches of Figures' by Jacob Maris, who was born in 1837. Maris, and his brothers Willem and Matthijs, were all part of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists working in the second half of the 19th century. The Hague School is known for its embrace of the everyday, its emphasis on landscape, and its move away from the grandiosity of history painting. Instead, they turned their attention to the lives of ordinary people. Here, we see two sketches that capture Maris’s interest in the human form. The figure on the left, a man in clothing, seems to be holding a small rectangular form, maybe a book. To his right, there is the faintest outline of a nude, or partially nude, figure. Consider the class and gender dynamics at play. Maris, a man of the rising middle class, uses his pencil to capture the likeness of another man, clothed, and a woman, nude, on paper. What stories do you think Maris was trying to tell?