Drie koppen 1860s

Johannes Tavenraat made this quick pen and ink sketch, "Three Heads," on a scrap of paper in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-19th century. The work's loose style might suggest a casualness, but consider the institutional and social functions even a sketch like this could serve. The hasty inscription suggests this study might have been produced for or in relation to an organization, perhaps even an art society, indicated by the text “Het Bestuur, Secretaris”– “The Board, Secretary”. The sketched heads, rendered with a focus on the lines of aging, also offer insight into the period's social values. The aging working class was a popular subject in Dutch art at the time. The social conditions that shape artistic production are always historically specific, and they are deeply informative about the values and cultural references of their time. To understand this work better, we might research Dutch art societies of the 19th century or examine Tavenraat’s broader body of work. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.