Jachthond 1840 - 1880

Johannes Tavenraat sketched this hunting dog with pen and ink sometime in the mid-19th century. As the title suggests, the work depicts a hunting dog on the prowl, perhaps having caught the scent of a rabbit, which we can see in the lower right corner. Tavenraat was a Dutch artist working in a period of relative peace and prosperity for the Netherlands, following the Napoleonic Wars. At this time, hunting was a popular pastime for the upper classes, and depictions of hunting scenes and animals were common in Dutch art. The institutional history of the art world also played a role. Art academies encouraged artists to study and depict animals accurately, and the market for animal paintings was strong. If you want to know more about the social context of Tavenraat's art, I suggest delving into archives that reveal more about the market for animal paintings in the Netherlands at the time.