Mannelijk naakt met schaal, ten halven lijve 1878 - 1938

Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst made this nude male drawing, with a bowl, sometime between 1868 and 1938. It is an exploration of the male form and draws on the classical tradition of representing the nude male as a symbol of strength and beauty. Holst made this drawing in the Netherlands, where the influence of classical art and literature was strong, and where the tradition of representing the human body in art had been well established since the Renaissance. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, academic art institutions perpetuated classical traditions. The Dutch art world was also influenced by the rise of social realism and the growing interest in representing everyday life and working-class subjects, and this may explain the artist's choice to depict his subject as an ordinary man rather than a mythical figure. Art historians consult a range of sources, from artists’ letters to exhibition catalogues, to help us understand how art objects make meaning in a particular social and institutional context.