Studie van een sluierstaart, met kleurnotities 1876 - 1924

This sketch of a fantail goldfish with color notations was made by Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof in the Netherlands, at the turn of the twentieth century. We can see the artist’s interest in Japanese prints in the sinuous lines and flat compositions, and the subject itself may have been prompted by the craze for collecting exotic breeds of goldfish in the Netherlands at the time. Dijsselhof belonged to a generation of artists who promoted ‘art for art’s sake’ and challenged the established art institutions. The artist's notations refer to color, form and surface texture. The annotations emphasize the idea that natural forms can be broken down into constituent shapes, colors and patterns. Although Dijsselhof made this study for personal research, his contemporaries believed that an artist's role was to research and visualize the underlying principles of the natural world. To understand the artist's intentions better, we can look at his writings and the critical reception of his work. Only by placing the work in its cultural and institutional context can we arrive at a fuller understanding of its historical meaning.