Notities 1900 - 1903

This is a page of handwritten notes by the Dutch artist Antoon Derkinderen, made sometime in his lifetime, between 1859 and 1925. It gives us insight into the social conditions that shape artistic production, because these words are clues to the artist’s world. The list of place names like Amsterdam, names of streets, and of businesses, locate the artist in a particular cultural and geographical setting. References to artistic concepts like the 'zodiac,' alongside everyday concerns, blurs the boundary between the high-minded world of art and the more immediate world of social and economic life. These notes can be studied through the lens of cultural history, accessing resources like city directories, business archives, and historical maps, we can trace the artist’s journey and understand how these social structures might have influenced his work, allowing us to reflect on the meaning of art as something contingent on its historical context.