Drie dode en een levend hert before 1860

Martinus Antonius Kuytenbrouwer Jr. made this print of three dead deer and one living deer using lithography. The image presents a tension between life and death, in a work of art designed to study animals. Looking at it from a social historical point of view, this work, made in the Netherlands, could connect to the rise of naturalism in the 19th century. The naturalistic movement was driven by an ambition to depict reality objectively. We can imagine how museums and other institutions played a role in promoting the study of nature and encouraging artists like Kuytenbrouwer to create accurate representations. If we want to understand the meaning of this drawing better, it helps to consider the public role of art and the social conditions that shape artistic production. We might research Dutch art academies of the time, and the relationship between art and science in 19th-century Dutch culture. By doing this, we might start to understand this artwork as something contingent on its historical context.