Groep staande heren, met hoge hoed en lange jas 1864 - 1936

Jan van Essen made this drawing of a group of standing gentlemen with high hats and long coats using graphite on paper. The thin graphite lines create a sense of quickness and spontaneity, as if the artist was trying to capture a fleeting moment. The choice of graphite as a medium is interesting because it is a relatively inexpensive and accessible material, but here, it is used to depict a group of men who are clearly members of the upper class. Their clothing marks them as part of a bourgeois society, a class elevated by industrial capitalism. Consider the relationship between the material and the subject matter: graphite is a material that is associated with labor and industry, yet it is used here to depict men who likely benefited from that labor. Van Essen acknowledges the social context in which the artwork was produced, blurring the lines between fine art and craft, labor and leisure, and materiality and representation.