Drie liggende schapen 1822 - 1899

Simon van den Berg made this etching, "Drie liggende schapen" or "Three Lying Sheep", sometime in the 19th century. The rural landscape, and especially its animal inhabitants, became an increasingly popular subject for artists throughout the 1800s. Prints like these, often small in scale, catered to a growing middle class with an appetite for art that reflected idealized visions of the countryside. This etching captures the texture of wool and the soft forms of the sheep through a network of fine lines. These details are of great importance if we wish to understand the popularity of pastoral scenes in the Netherlands at the time. Images of rural life often served a conservative purpose, promoting values associated with the countryside, such as simplicity, honesty, and piety. By consulting sources from the period, such as agricultural journals, exhibition reviews, and census data, we can better understand the social and economic forces that shaped the production and reception of images like this one.