Witte Franse jachthond heeft een eend gevangen 1837

Francis Conscience made this print of a white French hunting dog catching a duck in the early nineteenth century. The image creates meaning through visual codes and historical associations. Prints like this were part of a much wider culture of hunting in Europe, deeply connected to aristocratic privilege and the management of land. Hunting became a coded sign of social rank, even as the old feudal system was slowly eroded by capitalism. The possession of a hunting dog, the right to hunt on certain lands: these were once jealously guarded privileges, now increasingly opened to a new class of wealthy landowners. Hunting prints such as this one can tell us much about the changing structure of society at the time. The historian can study estate records, sporting magazines, and other sources to understand better the changing place of hunting in European culture.