Toepad bij een arbeiderswoning en een boom 1874 - 1875

Willem Cornelis Rip made this pencil drawing, ‘Toepad bij een arbeiderswoning en een boom’, at an unknown date. The sketch depicts an ordinary scene of a worker’s house and a tree. But it is in that very ordinariness that the work finds its social and cultural context. Rip was active during a time of great social change. Urbanization and industrialization brought increasing inequality and social unrest. Here in the Netherlands, the art world was also changing. Artists began to question the established norms of the art academy and sought to represent modern life and the life of the common man. Rip's choice to depict such a subject reflects this shift in artistic sensibility. It is a subtle commentary on the value and dignity of the working class. To understand the work fully we need to delve into Dutch social history of the late 19th century. Art historical resources combined with insights from economic and political history can shed light on this work and its place in the cultural landscape of the time.