Drie vissersschepen op zee 1864 - 1909

Cornelia Christina Johanna van Trigt-Hoevenaar created "Drie vissersschepen op zee" – Three Fishing Boats at Sea – in graphite. Van Trigt-Hoevenaar lived at a time when women artists often had to navigate significant social barriers. Many were confined to domestic subjects, and their work was often undervalued. Here, instead, she shows us a masculine domain, the sea, with its working boats. Van Trigt-Hoevenaar does not focus on the heroism of labor, but rather the everyday, quiet work, its human scale. We see a vastness gently rendered; the fleet as a site of ordinary, rather than extraordinary, work. Van Trigt-Hoevenaar invites us to contemplate not just the scene but also the position of a woman artist depicting a traditionally male world, subtly shifting our perceptions and expanding the narrative of both art and labor.