Hond, staand op een stoel 1884 - 1952

Reinier Willem Petrus de Vries made this print of a dog standing on a chair sometime in the early to mid-twentieth century. The whole image is pretty much two tones of brown, with the dog, chair, and background elements in chocolate against a lighter coffee-colored paper. I really like the way de Vries made this - it feels so familiar, the way a dog's posture can be so expressive. I can almost feel the texture of the woodblock, each line carefully carved, giving the image a slightly rough, homemade quality. It makes me wonder what de Vries was thinking when he made this, what he was trying to capture. Was he a dog lover? De Vries is part of a huge lineage of animal painters, like Franz Marc and Paula Modersohn-Becker, whose works continue to challenge and inspire us. Ultimately, it's not about one single meaning but about the experience itself, the conversation between the artist, the artwork, and us.