Inladen van een vrachtschip 1613 - 1657

Nicolas Perelle created this print called 'Inladen van een vrachtschip' or 'Loading a cargo ship' sometime in the mid to late 17th century. It depicts the everyday labour of loading cargo onto a ship on what looks like a summers day. This etching was made in France, a country which at this time was building its wealth through maritime trade. The image presents a landscape with workers busily loading barrels onto a ship; it romanticizes their labour, idealizing it for a middle-class audience. Prints like this would have been bought and sold in print shops, like the one whose name and address is inscribed at the bottom of the image. What can this artwork tell us about the history of labour, trade, and capitalism? These are all things that art historians consider when trying to understand art as part of a larger social and institutional context. We use resources, such as archives and other historical documents, to help us understand the world that produced these images.