Gezicht op Hammerfest 1880s

This is a sketch of Hammerfest by Louis Apol, made with graphite on paper. The immediacy of the sketch gives us a sense of what it was like for a 19th-century artist to engage with the northern landscape. Apol belonged to a group of Dutch artists fascinated by the natural world. The rise of landscape art coincided with growing national pride and scientific interest in the natural environment. Artists contributed to the creation of national identity through visual depictions of their homeland. But Apol, like many artists, was also interested in locations beyond the Netherlands. In order to understand how the sketch functions, we must consider the scientific, economic, and cultural forces that led artists like Apol to venture into remote regions. We can begin to understand the social and cultural history of this image by exploring travelogues and scientific reports from the period. The sketch might then reveal its significance within a network of institutions, including scientific societies, museums, and the art market.