Zeilschip op de Zuiderzee bij Volendam 1875

George Clausen made this pencil drawing, Zeilschip op de Zuiderzee bij Volendam, at an unknown date. The simple sketch depicts a sailing ship on the Zuiderzee near Volendam in the Netherlands, along with a sketch of a head. Clausen was British, but he made many visits to the Netherlands. Volendam was, at the time, a small fishing village, but it attracted many artists. We see the village in the background with its characteristic church tower. Clausen was interested in depicting the lives of rural workers and peasants. We can see the figure of a man at the helm of the ship. While this sketch doesn't explicitly critique the institutions of art, we can understand it better by looking at the history of artists' colonies, and the relationship between art and rural life in the late 19th century. The meaning of this work is contingent on the social and institutional context in which it was made, and we need to consider those things to fully understand it.