The Pigeon House 1650 - 1681

"The Pigeon House" was likely made with oil on wood by Roelof van Vries, around the mid-17th century. Van Vries employed traditional fine art materials, but he rendered them with a keen eye to social context. Look closely at the pigment, and you'll notice the dark, muted palette, a far cry from the lavish colors that were then available. The colors are appropriate to the subject: a dilapidated structure and laborers engaged in everyday tasks. This work is about the real world, and the labor it took to sustain it. Van Vries isn't just painting a scene, he’s depicting the amount of work it takes to maintain a society. It's a reminder that painting, like any other form of making, is always tied to wider social issues of labor, politics, and consumption. The painting is not just about the pigeon house. It’s about the people whose lives are intertwined with it. By directing his attention to the everyday, Van Vries elevated the status of craft and labor in the visual arts.