Marxist en Arbeider 1899

Jan de Waardt created this pencil drawing, Marxist en Arbeider, in 1899. It captures a moment rife with the tensions of a rapidly industrializing Europe. The drawing portrays an intellectual, presumably the Marxist, in conversation with a manual laborer. The Marxist, with his bourgeois dress and cane, embodies the intellectual elite, gesturing didactically. Conversely, the laborer stands with his back turned, his heavy hammer resting on the ground, a symbol of his toil. The artist seems to ask: Can theory truly meet practice? Are these two figures—the thinker and the worker—destined to remain separated by class and understanding? De Waardt lived in a time of immense social upheaval, and his art often grapples with themes of inequality. This work serves as a poignant reflection on the artist's socio-political environment, capturing the emotional and ideological distance between social classes.