Varken, een hok en een schets van een hek 1823

Jean Bernard sketched “Varken, een hok en een schets van een hek” with pen in the late 18th century. During this period, European society was deeply stratified, and rural life was often romanticized by the urban elite, though the reality was one of labor and hardship. Bernard’s sketch, depicting a pig, a pigsty, and a fence, operates within this context. The pig is not a symbol of wealth, but instead represents the everyday existence of the working class. The pigsty and the fence, sketched with simple lines, underscore the basic, almost rudimentary nature of rural life. Bernard was influenced by the Enlightenment’s focus on observation and documentation of the natural world. Instead of idealizing the animal, Bernard presents it in its mundane reality, rooting the image in a social narrative about labor, identity, and the realities of rural life.