A Carpenter at Work 1690 - 1759

Jan Josef Horemans the Elder made this drawing of a carpenter at work with red chalk on paper. Horemans was a Flemish painter active in Antwerp and Germany in the first half of the 18th century. He specialized in genre scenes, often depicting everyday life with a humorous or moralizing tone. This study of a craftsman at work, however, is more subdued and perhaps even sympathetic. The image creates meaning through its directness and lack of idealization. The carpenter is shown in his working clothes, focused on his task. In a culture dominated by aristocratic patronage, the artist is drawing our attention to the laboring classes. Drawings like this one would have been studies for larger paintings that might include such figures as part of a larger scene of everyday life. To better understand Horemans's art, one might research the social and economic conditions of 18th-century Flanders. Through archival research into guild records, for example, we can understand the importance of crafts in that society. Art history, in this way, helps us better understand the world around us.