Moeder met een kind op schoot 1854 - 1914

Albert Neuhuys created this sketch of a mother and child in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Its soft charcoal rendering and intimate subject matter speak to a broader cultural interest in the domestic lives of peasants and working-class families in the Netherlands. Neuhuys belonged to the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists who reacted against the academic style of the time, turning instead to the rural landscape and its inhabitants. He produced many genre scenes of peasant life, often depicting women engaged in domestic tasks. While seemingly apolitical, these images contributed to a growing sense of national identity, emphasizing the virtues of rural life. The Rijksmuseum, which houses this drawing, played a key role in shaping this narrative through its collection and display of Dutch art. To fully understand this drawing, we can consult the museum's archives, exhibition catalogs, and period publications, and we can consider the complex interplay between art, national identity, and social class in the Netherlands at the turn of the century.