Hert 1840 - 1880

Johannes Tavenraat created this sketch, known as "Hert," with pen in the Netherlands during the 19th century. Tavenraat lived through a time of significant social and political change in the Netherlands, including the transition from monarchy to a more constitutional government. This sketch of a stag, caught mid-leap, seems to reflect the dynamism and freedom that artists sought to capture in the Romantic era. During this time there was an inclination towards more individual emotional experience. Artists often turned to nature as a source of inspiration and a space for contemplation, and as somewhere that was untouched by the societal norms of the time. Here the stag seems to exist outside of that, unburdened. Yet, the act of sketching itself implies observation, inviting questions about our relationship with the natural world and the gaze we cast upon it. What does it mean to capture a moment of freedom, and how does that act of capture change its essence?