Jan Veth made this drawing of Anna Dorothea Veth-Dirks using pen and brown ink on paper. The sitter was the artist’s mother, and the drawing likely dates from around 1890. The loose style is typical of late 19th-century Dutch art. But it also reflects a shift in the social role of the artist. Veth was an anarchist and an outspoken critic of Dutch bourgeois society. This aesthetic chimes with his politics. It flies in the face of the highly finished, polished style expected by the art market and academies of the time. The unfinished quality of the drawing, the way the figure merges with the background, suggests the kind of intimacy we associate with a private sketch rather than a commissioned portrait. Historical research into artists' lives and the social conditions in which they worked can help us appreciate these nuances. It allows us to understand how art can be a powerful commentary on the society that produces it.