Rivierlandschap met zeilschepen en een molen 1797 - 1838

Johannes Christiaan Schotel made this river landscape with sailing ships and a mill in the Netherlands, sometime before 1838. It's a watercolor on paper, and the thinness of the medium gives us a sense of the artist's process. Note how the artist is not just representing a landscape, but also the technologies that made the Netherlands a world power in his time. Windmills drained the low-lying lands, creating polders for agriculture and settlement. The sailing ships stand for global trade, and perhaps naval power. What is most interesting about this image, though, is what it doesn't show. The artist seems to have stopped midway through the image. Was it meant to be a sketch, a demonstration of the techniques of landscape art? The question of the role of the 'finish' in art is itself a social one. By looking at the artist's other work, and consulting historical sources, we can get a sense of what he was trying to achieve.