Man with a Penknife 

Salomon Koninck created this etching, Man with a Penknife, in the Dutch Republic during its Golden Age. The image shows a man with a long beard, wearing a beret, and carefully sharpening his quill with a penknife. He is surrounded by books and other scholarly objects, like the hourglass, and a wall-mounted grotesque head. In the context of the Dutch Golden Age, a time of great commercial expansion and social change, this image speaks to the important cultural value placed on literacy, knowledge, and scholarship. Koninck was not working in isolation; he was part of a wider artistic milieu. While his style wasn't as flamboyant or dramatic as Rembrandt's, it was still very much influenced by it. By looking at the institutional contexts in which he was working, we can better understand the social function of his art. Researching the inventories of private homes and public institutions can help us understand the value placed on such images at the time and the possible social implications of this etching.