Portret van Jacob Maris 1874 - 1925

Jan Veth’s charcoal drawing portrays the Dutch painter Jacob Maris, palette in hand. The unfinished quality of the work is telling. In the late 19th century, artists in the Netherlands felt constrained by the academic style promoted in art institutions. Some rebelled against it and founded new groups and artistic movements. Maris was a leading figure in the Hague School, a movement of landscape painters who rejected the grandiose style of the academy. Veth was not only an artist but an art critic and historian who strongly believed that art served a public role as a force for social change. He saw the Dutch masters as a touchstone, a cultural reference point, and a source of national pride. To understand art we need to know the social conditions of its making. Art history is the discipline that teaches us how to research these contexts using primary resources from archives, libraries, and museums.