Portret van Willem van der Worp 1812 - 1861

Jacobus van den Berg made this pencil drawing of Willem van der Worp in the Netherlands sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It shows a neatly dressed, fresh-faced young man of the Dutch middle class. In the Netherlands at this time, new civic institutions like museums and art societies were helping to forge a sense of national identity. Portraiture played an important part, both in celebrating prominent citizens and in establishing norms of social status. The emphasis on realism and the absence of aristocratic swagger suggests a society where middle-class values were becoming increasingly important. While van den Berg and van der Worp are not household names today, studying their lives through archival records can reveal a great deal about the social, economic, and political context of the time. What was van der Worp's profession? How did van den Berg support himself as an artist? By answering questions like these, we can better understand the public role of art in 19th-century Netherlands.