Schoenlapper 1806 - 1835

Editor: This is "Schoenlapper," a pen and ink drawing by Hendrik Marcus Schouten, created sometime between 1806 and 1835. The level of detail in this sketch is astounding. What is your take on it? Curator: It’s fascinating how this seemingly simple genre painting, depicting a shoemaker at work, actually engages with complex socio-political currents of its time. Genre painting gained popularity as a means of portraying everyday life, particularly the lives of the working class, but within a very controlled frame. Editor: Controlled? How so? Curator: The depiction of the "common man" through genre-painting became fashionable in part as a counterpoint to earlier traditions that depicted the lives of royalty. Consider the potential message of these pieces to the public: what is the message, what socio-economic structures do you see being affirmed by the artist's presentation of labor? Editor: I suppose showing the value of labor? Is that perhaps what Schouten sought to highlight here? Curator: It’s possible, and something we have to always ask when evaluating pieces through a modern perspective. The placement and exhibition of this work shaped its reception. To see a humble tradesman given prominence would depend greatly on the cultural climate. The composition seems intent to frame shoemaking with honest, even romantic labor, further implying an ideal in art of how working people fit into social structures. Editor: That's an interesting angle I hadn’t considered before! It definitely gives a new depth to what I originally thought was a straightforward depiction. Curator: Exactly! Thinking about art as a cultural product interwoven with politics can be revealing.