Landschap met twee wandelaars 1778 - 1838

Anthonie van den Bos created this ink drawing, “Landscape with Two Walkers,” sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. The image presents a pastoral scene, a style favored by wealthy landowners and aristocrats at the time. Its circular form is in keeping with the Neoclassical style then in vogue, an aesthetic defined by its references to classical antiquity. But this is no grand history painting, it is more intimate. Here we see two figures, presumably a well-to-do gentleman with a walking stick, and perhaps a peasant pausing on the riverbank. Such scenes were often commissioned for private collections. These landscape paintings can tell us about the development of social classes at the time, the patrons, the artists, and even the viewers. Paintings like these reflect changing tastes and social structures. To understand the importance of this, we can look at estate records, letters, diaries, and sale catalogs, which help contextualize the artwork and the society that produced it. Art, after all, is always shaped by its social and institutional context.