Skitse med seks mandlige figurer, to med skovle, tre siddende, samt en mandsprofil 1765 - 1841

C.D. Fritzsch created this sketch of six men with pen on paper, sometime in the late 18th or early 19th century. The image shows an artist grappling with how to represent the social hierarchy of labor. The men here are engaged in different kinds of work, from the physical labor of shoveling to the more intellectual labor of reading and observation. Made in Denmark, perhaps around the time of the country's abolition of the slave trade, this image subtly reveals how artists were trying to represent evolving social and political identities. Note how the figure at the bottom right is distinguished from the others by his fine clothing and carefully groomed hair. Is he overseeing the others? Is the artist perhaps making a study of different social classes? These are questions a historian can try to answer by looking at things like fashion, political pamphlets, and the records of institutions that governed social life at the time.