Stroper wordt betrapt by François Grenier

Stroper wordt betrapt

1819 - 1836

François Grenier's Profile Picture

François Grenier

1793 - 1867

Location

Rijksmuseum
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Artwork details

Medium
print, engraving
Dimensions
height 283 mm, width 372 mm
Location
Rijksmuseum
Copyright
Rijks Museum: Open Domain

Tags

#print#old engraving style#landscape#forest#romanticism#watercolour illustration#genre-painting#engraving

About this artwork

François Grenier created this print, “Stroper wordt betrapt,” sometime in the first half of the 19th century. In it we see a hunter caught in the act. Prints like these reflect a changing relationship between people and the natural world in the 19th century. The rise of the middle class, and the concurrent rise of leisure time, brought about new forms of recreation, like hunting. But what had once been a necessity for survival was becoming a sport, and with that came new regulations and social attitudes towards poaching. The man’s anxious pose, the way his dog stares off into the distance, they evoke a sense of guilt, or at least of being caught. He embodies the tension between individual freedom and societal rules, between our desires and our responsibilities. It’s a moment of reckoning, isn’t it, when one's actions come under scrutiny?

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