Stappend paard, naar links 1775 - 1833

This drawing, by Jean Bernard, captures a striding horse in delicate lines of graphite. Bernard was a Dutch artist working in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, a period of great social and political upheaval in Europe. The image of the horse itself carried significant cultural weight. In the Netherlands, as elsewhere, horses were associated with wealth, power, and military might. Note the horse's tack. This wasn't just any horse, but one trained for riding or pulling a carriage, marking its status as a beast of burden for the upper classes. Consider the context in which Bernard was working. The Netherlands had been through a period of revolution and was under French influence. Artists at the time were grappling with questions of national identity and the role of art in society. To fully understand this drawing, scholars might look at other equestrian art of the period, military history, and the social history of the Netherlands. Art always reflects the world in which it was created.