Bomen bij een pad 1615 - 1655

Lodewijk de Vadder created this etching, "Trees by a Path," in the Netherlands, sometime in the first half of the 17th century. It depicts a copse of trees, with a bench tucked inside, beside a path. The cultural and institutional history surrounding Dutch landscape art at this time is quite interesting. The Dutch Republic had recently won its independence and was eager to define its national identity. Landscape painting became a key genre, offering artists a way to celebrate the local countryside. De Vadder, however, was active in Brussels, at that time the capital of the Spanish Netherlands, and a very different political entity from the Dutch Republic. Artists in his circle were instrumental in the development of landscape as an independent genre in the Southern Netherlands. To understand this etching fully, we can explore archives of artist's correspondence, records of artistic training, and early publications in the history of art. In doing so, we gain insight into the artwork as something contingent on social and institutional context.