Heuvellandschap met huizen en een boom 1865 - 1913

Bramine Hubrecht made this landscape with houses and a tree, likely sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century, using pen and ink. Here, the artist gives us a view of the Dutch countryside. We might ask ourselves what particular vision of the Netherlands is being offered and to what end? It’s a romantic depiction, certainly, that gives us an apparently objective view of rural life, all the while obscuring the economic realities of the time, the expansion of industry, and the growth of cities. Hubrecht was a woman working in a male dominated art world. How might her view of the landscape differ from that of her male contemporaries? We might consider whether the formal properties of the image—the emphasis on line and the relative lack of tonal variation—are distinctly feminine. To better understand this artwork, we might consider what role it played in Hubrecht’s artistic practice, as well as her place within the Dutch art world.