Schets van een boerenschuur met ladder naar de hooizolder 1837 - 1903

Jan Striening made this pencil drawing of a barn with a ladder to the hayloft sometime in the 19th century. Striening has used simple graphite on paper to render the scene, a seemingly commonplace subject made with readily available materials. But the sketch’s apparent simplicity belies a complex relationship to labor and the means of production. Graphite, derived from mined minerals, speaks to industrial processes and resource extraction. Paper, once handmade, had become a mass-produced commodity by Striening’s time. The drawing depicts a site of agricultural labor, showing the architecture of farming with its hayloft, ladder, and roughly hewn beams. The very act of sketching—a relatively quick and reproducible technique—contrasts with the slow, physical labor required to build and maintain such a structure. By focusing on the materials and processes of both the artwork and its subject, we can better understand the social and economic context in which it was made, challenging traditional notions of fine art as separate from everyday life.