Door een storm getroffen boom 1874

Willem Cornelis Rip made this pencil drawing, entitled 'Door een storm getroffen boom', meaning 'Tree hit by a storm', at an unknown date. The tree, uprooted and alone, may reflect a wider sense of upheaval at the time. Rip was part of the Hague School, a group of Dutch artists active between about 1860 and 1890. This was a time of significant social and economic change in the Netherlands, with the rise of industrialization and urbanization challenging traditional rural ways of life. Rip and his contemporaries turned away from grand historical painting toward more intimate, naturalistic scenes of the Dutch landscape. The image creates meaning through visual codes and historical associations. The tree could be a metaphor for the individual struggling against the forces of nature or society, with the storm representing the challenges and hardships of modern life. Art historians might explore how Rip's art reflected or commented on the social structures of his time, researching the socio-political, economic, and cultural forces shaping Dutch society in the late 19th century.