Twee liggende schapen 1820

Here we see Frans Lebret’s ‘Two Lying Sheep’, a detailed pencil drawing made sometime in the 19th century. Lebret, who lived from 1820 to 1909, was working in a time when the Netherlands was undergoing significant social and economic changes. During this period, the Netherlands saw the rise of Romanticism in art, where there was a focus on nature, emotion, and the everyday life of the common person. Lebret’s choice to depict sheep, animals closely tied to the rural economy, is very much in line with this movement. However, these sheep also invite us to think about labor and land. Who owns the sheep and the land they rest on? What kind of relationship does the artist have to the working classes? In the end, the drawing also encourages a peaceful moment of reflection, inviting us to find beauty in simplicity and to consider our relationship with the natural world.