Vis Possibly 1870 - 1871

Johannes Tavenraat made this drawing of a fish in 1880, and he used pen and ink. In 19th-century Netherlands, there was a growing middle class with more leisure time and a taste for art. Tavenraat, who came from a family of artists, catered to this market with landscapes and genre scenes. But here, instead of an idyllic landscape, we see something more quotidian, a quick sketch of a fish. What does it mean? Is it simply a study of the natural world? Perhaps. But it might also be a commentary on the changing Dutch economy. The fishing industry was in decline, and many artists started to paint the lives of fishermen and their families, thus drawing attention to economic inequality. To really understand this drawing, one could consult Dutch economic records from the period. Art is never created in a vacuum, and its meaning is always shaped by the society in which it is made.