Slapende hond, naar rechts 1864 - 1936

Jan van Essen made this drawing of a sleeping dog, using pen and brown ink with brush in grey ink, sometime in the late 19th or early 20th century. The image presents us with a paradox. On the one hand, we see a domestic animal at rest, perhaps a symbol of the comforts of home and hearth. But the dog is also collared, a sign of its subservience to human control. In the Netherlands at this time, the art world was becoming increasingly professionalized, with artists seeking recognition through institutions like the Rijksmuseum. To understand an image like this, we can look to sources like exhibition reviews, artists' letters, and the records of art academies. In this way we can start to see how the image may reflect the social and institutional structures of its time. Is it a commentary on the relationship between humans and animals, or perhaps even a statement about the artist's own place in the world?