Wasserfall unter Bäumen, links zwei Figuren 

Anthonie Waterloo created "Waterfall Among Trees, with Two Figures on the Left" using pen and brown ink with gray wash, a technique popular in the Dutch Golden Age. Waterloo's work invites us into a serene yet subtly structured natural world. Born in a time of significant social stratification, Waterloo often depicted landscapes populated with figures, perhaps reflecting the era's complex relationship between humanity and nature. The two figures on the left, likely men, invite questions about labor, leisure, and the male gaze within landscape art. How might their presence, and the absence of women, influence our reading of the scene? Are they laborers pausing for rest, or are they figures of the burgeoning middle class finding solace in nature? This work also offers a glimpse into the cultural values of the time, where the beauty of the natural world was both celebrated and subtly tamed through artistic representation, inviting reflection on our contemporary relationship with the environment.