Schetsboek met 46 bladen 1874 - 1875

This is the cover of a sketchbook of 46 pages by Willem Cornelis Rip, a Dutch artist who lived from 1856 to 1922. Though we can't see the contents, the very existence of this object raises questions about artistic practice and the social status of the artist in the Netherlands at the turn of the century. Rip was a landscape painter in the Hague School style. This suggests a possible tension between the demands of the market - the need to produce finished paintings for exhibition and sale - and the artist's own creative process. What was the role of the sketchbook within this process? Did it function as a space for free experimentation, away from the gaze of the public? Or was it a tool for recording motifs and ideas, to be later worked up into more polished and commercial works? To answer these questions we would need to look at the contents of the sketchbook itself, as well as other documents that might shed light on Rip's working methods, such as letters, diaries, or exhibition reviews. Only then can we begin to understand the social conditions that shaped his artistic production.