Liggende hond 1777

Cornelis Brouwer sketched this 'Liggende hond' – or reclining dog – with pen in brown ink on paper in the Netherlands sometime in the late 18th century. Brouwer was working in a period and place in which the institutions of art were starting to take on the form that we recognize today. Academies taught artists technique, and critics, some of whom were associated with these academies, laid down rules of taste. At the same time, the art market was becoming more robust, and new museums were opening to the public. A sketch like this might have served multiple purposes. Perhaps Brouwer made it as a preparatory study for a larger painting. Or it could have been an independent work of art intended for sale to a collector. It’s even possible that Brouwer made it simply as a demonstration of his skill in capturing the likeness of an animal. The Rijksmuseum's extensive holdings can tell us more about how artists like Brouwer negotiated the changing social landscape of the art world.