Landschap 1895

Willem Cornelis Rip made this landscape drawing with graphite on paper some time between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, when landscape painting dominated the Dutch art world. Rip belonged to the second generation of the Hague School, a group of artists based in the Netherlands who embraced a style of realism heavily influenced by the Barbizon School in France. They sought to represent the landscape and daily life of the Netherlands, a relatively new nation-state in Europe whose artistic institutions were still taking shape. Here, the influence of the French is clear in the artist’s focus on the natural landscape and in his muted and understated style. This drawing captures a quick impression of a waterside scene. Unlike their French counterparts, the artists of the Hague School, including Rip, were less interested in the fleeting effects of light and more in a subdued realism. To understand more, we can look at exhibition records, art criticism of the period, and other documents of artistic and intellectual exchange.