Slapende hond c. 1808 - 1857

Abraham Teerlink made this drawing of a sleeping dog with graphite on paper at an unknown date. During the Dutch Golden Age, artists like Teerlink often depicted animals, especially in genre scenes and landscapes, reflecting a growing interest in the natural world. However, this particular drawing seems less concerned with the dog's environment and more focused on capturing its form and posture. Made in the late 18th or early 19th century, at a time when academic art training was becoming more formalized, drawings like this served as studies of anatomy and observation. It’s likely that Teerlink, who was the director of the Drawing Academy in The Hague, would have used such drawings to instruct his students. We can learn more about the role of art education in Dutch society by consulting archival records of art academies, artists' biographies, and contemporary art criticism. This helps us understand how art was taught, valued, and consumed in the Netherlands at the time.