Jachthonden 1840 - 1880

Curator: The lines seem almost brutally efficient. You can see the bones beneath the skin of the standing dog so clearly. Editor: Here at the Rijksmuseum, we have this interesting drawing titled 'Jachthonden', or Hunting Dogs, by Johannes Tavenraat. It's estimated to have been made sometime between 1840 and 1880, using pencil and ink. Curator: The medium is really direct here, just pencil and ink on paper. Makes me think about Tavenraat's working process—a quickly rendered study, perhaps? You can almost feel the scratch of the pencil. What paper was available to him? How were such depictions of labor valued and commodified in the art market? Editor: It's interesting how depictions of animals in art reflect the social standing and roles animals played in society during that period. Hunting was, of course, tied to land ownership, aristocratic leisure... this image hints at those power structures. And hunting dogs were status symbols. Curator: Definitely a commentary on status and power. These dogs are workers, bred for a specific purpose. It makes you think about selective breeding and the labor inherent in animal husbandry, too. Their existence and bodies are defined by their utility. I can almost imagine what they have eaten... And the type of labour of the Artist rendering his dog friends, to supply to emerging patrons. Editor: Do you think there's something almost melancholic about them, this sense of purpose perhaps devoid of…choice? You are right in how those lines can define their essence as domesticated animals ready for labour and hunting expeditions. I am curious as to whether this artwork would become part of public pedagogical programmes regarding our society and other species of mammals that can give birth and raise. Curator: Perhaps it’s also about our relationship with labor itself. What is its intrinsic value versus its commodified worth? What does "work" and labour look like between people, countries and species? The starkness of the sketch invites a lot of consideration about our connections to other beings in Nature and Commerce. Editor: Absolutely, a very loaded little drawing, revealing the social landscape of its time, beyond its ostensible subject. Curator: Yes. Definitely an era that marks where we are heading as humans among animals and tools to exploit nature.