Bos bij de Plantage 1873

Johannes Tavenraat made this drawing, Bos bij de Plantage, with a pencil in 1873. Tavenraat lived through a time of great change for Dutch art institutions as new museums were founded and older ones reorganized. This landscape comes at a time when Dutch artists were looking for more naturalistic and immediate ways of depicting the world around them. It feels like a snapshot of a forest scene, recorded directly from nature. You can see how Tavenraat has used quick, light lines to capture the shapes and textures of the trees and foliage. The reference to the 'Plantage' in the title evokes the many public parks that were being established in the Netherlands and throughout Europe in the 19th century. These parks reflected changing attitudes towards nature, as something to be preserved and enjoyed by all members of society. To understand more about Tavenraat’s practice, you might research the art academies of the Netherlands and the role they played in shaping artistic styles. What were the debates around landscape painting at this time? What did it mean to paint 'en plein air', or outdoors? Asking these kinds of questions helps us appreciate the art within a wider cultural context.