Aantal jachthonden in het veld 1840 - 1880

This is a pen drawing of hunting dogs in a field, made by Johannes Tavenraat in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-19th century. Tavenraat was part of a generation of Dutch artists who turned away from the grand historical painting that was the bread and butter of the art academies. Instead, they focused on everyday subjects, like landscapes and animals. This was a self-consciously progressive move. It challenged the hierarchy of genres that had been in place since the Renaissance, and it implicitly criticized the elitism of the art world. We can see in this drawing how Tavenraat’s interest in the everyday led him to focus on the details of the dogs’ bodies and the way they move. He captures the dogs' alertness through his use of quick, lively lines. To understand the meaning of this drawing fully, we might look at the rise of landscape painting in the Netherlands in this period. We might also consider the social and economic changes that were taking place in the country at the time. Art is always embedded in a particular context, and it is the historian's job to try to understand that context.