Landschap met bomen op een heuvel aan het water 1860 - 1910

Alfred Elsen created this landscape with trees on a hill near water as an etching. Given Elsen's working period we might tentatively situate it at the close of the 19th century. The image participates in a longer history of landscape art in the Netherlands. Following the end of the Napoleonic Wars, Dutch artists rejected Romanticism and instead committed themselves to realism and the artistic investigation of the local landscape. Dutch landscape artists explored their native landscapes and depicted the country’s distinctive atmosphere, characterized by cloudy skies and diffused light. There was a conscious artistic turn away from the concerns of the academies and towards direct engagement with the everyday world. This approach also reflected a new national pride at a time when the modern Netherlands was just beginning to take shape. By considering the conditions in which art is made, the social and political context, we can better understand its significance. Historians study such contexts through archival materials to enrich our understanding of art.