Hooiwagen 1770 - 1825

Simon Andreas Krausz made this drawing, Hooiwagen, using pen and ink, sometime around the late 18th or early 19th century. Krausz, born in Hungary, was a military man who became known for his landscape drawings. Though seemingly a simple sketch of a hay wagon with a seated man, the work speaks volumes about the social conditions of its time. The late 1700s and early 1800s were a period of massive upheaval in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. In this climate of change, images of rural life and labor took on new meaning. The man on the hay wagon is a member of the peasantry, of course. How does Krausz portray him? Is this a romantic view of the simple life, or an honest depiction of the hard work on which society depends? To answer these questions, we might look at Krausz's personal history as well as broader trends in European art and politics at this time. What was the role of the military in Hungary? What kind of political tensions were present in Dutch society? Asking these questions helps us to understand the place of this artwork within the wider world.