Boslandschap 1885

Jan Veth created this landscape drawing using graphite and crayon. It's currently housed here at the Rijksmuseum. The Dutch landscape tradition has a long and interesting history, going back to the Golden Age. But by the late 19th century, artists like Veth were looking at the landscape in a new way. The development of the art market and the rise of art institutions allowed artists to be more experimental and subjective. This drawing suggests a movement away from idealized representations of nature, toward a more intimate and personal engagement with the environment. It suggests the influence of Symbolism, which focused on the expression of inner emotions and spiritual states, and the Hague School, which was a group of artists working around the city of The Hague who wanted a more naturalistic style. To understand drawings like this, we need to consider the social and artistic debates of the time. By looking at art journals, exhibition catalogues, and artists' letters, we can get a better sense of how artists like Veth saw themselves and their role in society.