Aardappelrooiende vrouw c. 1886

Willem Witsen made this pencil drawing titled 'Aardappelrooiende vrouw' - or 'Woman Digging Potatoes' - at an unknown date. But given that Witsen worked from around 1880 until the early 1920s, we can date the drawing to that period. The drawing captures a woman engaged in the hard labor of harvesting potatoes. In the late 19th and early 20th century Netherlands, this kind of agricultural work was commonplace for the rural poor. Witsen's choice of subject matter reflects a broader interest in the lives of working-class people, and signals a shift away from more traditional or academic themes in art. Dutch artists of this time were increasingly concerned with representing the realities of modern life, and in the context of growing social and political movements, this drawing acts as a commentary on the social structures of the time. To understand the significance of this drawing fully, one would need to delve into archives, study the artist's biography, and research the socio-economic conditions of the Netherlands during Witsen's lifetime. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.