Dorp 1614

Esaias van de Velde made this print, called Dorp, using etching in the Netherlands. Looking at the image, we see a village scene, made up of a church, houses and trees, with a man sitting on the ground in the foreground. The village could be anywhere, but there are some telling details, the windmill on the left for instance. Van de Velde was part of a generation of artists who turned away from grand religious and historical themes to represent everyday life and in doing so participated in the construction of a new visual culture. Prints like this offered a means of circulating images of Dutch society, economy and territory, constructing a sense of national identity in the relatively new Dutch Republic. Further research into similar prints and the conditions in which they were made would give us a clearer understanding of the artwork.