Tuin met vijver, op de voorgrond tuingereedschap 1715 - 1798

Dionys van Nijmegen sketched “Garden with Pond, with Garden Tools in the Foreground,” a drawing whose exact date is unknown. Nijmegen was a Dutch artist working in the 18th century, a time when Europe's wealthy were increasingly interested in gardens that demonstrated their wealth and power. Here we see not only the garden, but also the tools that would maintain it, along with the hint of a figure kneeling. It's tempting to see this figure as an allegory for the labor upon which such wealth was built. Gardening, in this historical moment, could be read as both a pleasure and a reminder of societal hierarchies. What stories do you think this garden could tell? Does it speak of leisure, or perhaps of the labor required to maintain such spaces?