A Wagon 1645 - 1649

Isaac van Ostade created this drawing of a wagon using pen and brown ink sometime between 1641 and 1649. Ostade lived and worked during the Dutch Golden Age, a time of immense economic growth, colonialism, and global trade for the Netherlands. During this period, the Dutch East India Company was at its peak, extracting resources from colonized lands, and trafficking enslaved people. It’s important to consider how this wealth was built on the backs of exploited people around the world. The wagon in the image might seem like a simple, everyday object, but it also symbolizes the logistics and transportation of goods that fueled the Dutch empire. The drawing’s delicate lines belie the heavy realities of the social order at the time. In contemplating this piece, we might reflect on the connection between mundane, domestic objects and the larger forces of history that shape our world.