Schilder voor zijn ezel 1576 - 1656

This is a pen and brown ink drawing by Gerrit Pietersz, made in the Netherlands around the year 1600. It shows a painter at work. The open display of the act of artistic creation is, of course, a very deliberate act. In 17th-century Netherlands, art and the art market played a significant social role as the country underwent major social and political changes. Artists responded to the growing merchant class and a more open market for art. Instead of working for the church or the aristocracy, they were selling their work at fairs or through dealers. Pietersz gives us a glimpse into this new world of art-making as a kind of self-promotion, celebrating the studio as a space of intellectual and manual labor. It would be fascinating to search archival records, such as guild records or auction catalogues to understand further the place of artists like Pietersz in Dutch society.