Figuren op en bij een hooiberg 1834 - 1903

Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch made this pencil drawing, "Figures on and by a haystack," in the Netherlands sometime in the 19th century. This was a period of great social change and economic growth. Weissenbruch, like many artists of his time, was interested in capturing the everyday lives of ordinary people. Haystacks were an important part of the Dutch agricultural landscape, and they represented the hard work and resilience of the Dutch people. But the drawing also speaks to the growing divide between the wealthy urban elite and the rural working class. Weissenbruch was one of the founders of the Hague School, which was reacting against the overly romanticized style of art that was popular at the time. He was working to create art that was more realistic and representative of the lives of ordinary people. Art historians can research the economic conditions of the Netherlands, and the growth of its museums, in order to understand drawings like this. These can help us to understand art as something contingent on a specific moment in history.