Jachthonden 1870

Johannes Tavenraat made this drawing of hunting dogs with pen in gray in the nineteenth century. In Dutch society at this time, hunting was an activity closely linked to class and land ownership, thus hunting dogs symbolized not only utility but status. Consider these dogs; they look like they’re in mid-action, the pen strokes capturing their taut muscles. This lends the work a sense of vitality, but there is also a kind of melancholy about it. It feels like it is more than just a study of dogs; it seems to suggest something about the place of animals within a social hierarchy. While seemingly a straightforward representation, Tavenraat's work quietly engages with questions of class, labor, and the natural world in nineteenth-century Dutch society. The emotional depth that he achieves in this seemingly simple drawing is striking.