November 1772

Hendrik Meijer made this watercolor and pen and ink drawing, titled ‘November,’ sometime in the late 18th century. It depicts the annual autumn slaughter in a rural Dutch village. Meijer’s picturesque rendering of this agrarian scene invites us to consider how social and economic relations find visual expression. On the left, two well-dressed men, perhaps landowners or merchants, inspect the butchered pigs, which are symbols of peasant labor and sustenance. The imposing church spire in the background and the villagers engaged in labor highlight the hierarchical social structure that defined Dutch society at the time. The scene reminds us that daily life was bound to religion and class distinction. The social history of art encourages us to research the economic systems that structured the lives of the people depicted. By consulting sources such as tax records, land surveys, and parish registers, we can interpret the drawing as a window into the lives of ordinary people.