Landscape with Three Oak Trees on the Right 1650

Claes van Beresteyn made this etching of a landscape with three oak trees in the mid-17th century. Its vision of nature chimes with the emerging Dutch national consciousness. This was the time that landscape art became a popular genre in the Netherlands. The Dutch Republic had just won independence from Spain and was consolidating its power. We might see this etching, and many other landscape paintings of the time, as a reflection of the newfound pride in the Dutch countryside. The low horizon line is a particularly Dutch feature. A growing merchant class with money to spend fuelled a boom in art production, and landscapes had a wide appeal. The etching medium itself is significant here. Etchings were more affordable and easier to produce, and so they helped to make art more widely available. To understand this work more fully, we might research the Dutch landscape tradition and the art market of the period. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.