Straat te Klausen in Tirol 1874

Willem Cornelis Rip made this pencil drawing, Straat te Klausen in Tirol, in the late 19th or early 20th century. Rip was Dutch and studied in Antwerp and Paris. He often painted landscapes en plein air. This sketch gives us a sense of what it would have been like for an artist, newly liberated from the studio, to encounter and record a picturesque European town. Here, the artist seems most interested in the vernacular architecture of Klausen, in the Tyrol region of Austria. He is keen to capture the textures and structural forms of the buildings. The social conditions that shape artistic production include the artist's economic status, their training and background, and the aesthetic values of their time. To understand this drawing better, we can research the art academies Rip attended, and also study travelogues and other documents relating to tourism in Austria. In this way, the meaning of art is always contingent on social context.