Honden 1840 - 1868

Curator: This pen and ink drawing from sometime between 1840 and 1868 is titled "Honden," by Johannes Tavenraat. Editor: There’s such a dynamic sense of motion captured here, even though it's just ink on paper. It gives me a peak into a working process... sketches on the fly perhaps? Curator: Precisely! Tavenraat was known for his genre paintings, but this offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse. Studying canine anatomy for a larger piece perhaps? The Rijksmuseum certainly highlights it as that type of artwork. Editor: That's fascinating because, to me, it's the materiality that sings. Look at how economical he is with the ink. It’s just enough to define form, almost a blueprint made physical through the most minimal use of materials. What type of paper stock would accept this ink well, I wonder? Curator: Knowing this was a preliminary study for a larger, likely commissioned piece gives the sketches a fascinating historical and social context. The Dutch art market was robust, and animal studies were becoming increasingly popular among the bourgeois classes. Editor: So, we could look at it as the foundation for something… decorative? How labor becomes commodified once that sketch becomes, say, a dog portrait in someone’s parlor? Curator: Absolutely! And notice how the depiction is still… "aristocratic?" Hunting dogs are certainly not laborers, although dogs for the poor were. We can interpret this work within shifting social structures during this period, but also consider the emerging visual rhetoric surrounding animals, especially pets. Editor: Yes, though the skeletal nature in several sketches feels more than "pets." It hints at something… darker than just bourgeois companionship, perhaps mortality? The tools were modest, the labor looks quick but confident, the results... something surprisingly timeless. Curator: Indeed, Johannes Tavenraat likely did not imagine that a series of seemingly simple dog sketches would become a window into the artistic practices and social values of 19th-century Netherlands! Editor: It all brings up interesting considerations of labor, technique, and, unexpectedly, emotion using modest supplies—a glimpse into what ends up on display, and everything left off-canvas, unseen by gallery lights.