Zingende man (het Gehoor) 1670 - 1704

Cornelis Dusart created this engraving, Zingende man (het Gehoor), or Singing Man (The Hearing), sometime between 1660 and 1704. Here, the artist depicts a jovial, lower-class man, mouth wide open in song. We can ask, what might this image tell us about the social life of art in the Netherlands during this period? Consider the work in relation to the art market of the time. Was it made for sale? To whom? And how might its availability shape its content? The lack of specific date is also telling. Without it, the work floats somewhat free of its immediate context. The print may have been produced for a broad audience, perhaps even disseminated in printed pamphlets or books of the period. This could align it with the rise of a new kind of public sphere, one in which art and ideas circulated more freely than ever before. To fully understand such an image, we would need to delve into the social history of Dutch printmaking. We can explore the archives of publishers and booksellers, trace the circulation of similar images, and reconstruct the networks of artists and patrons that made such work possible.