Staande man met een korf op zijn rug 1849 - 1917

This is a pencil drawing of a man carrying a basket, made by Matthijs Maris, a Dutch artist working in the 19th century. The sketch is held in the Rijksmuseum. Maris was part of the Hague School, a group of artists who reacted against the academic style of the time. They focused on everyday scenes, particularly those that showed the lives of working-class people. This drawing is a clear example of that focus. The man's posture suggests a life of labor, of bearing burdens. The sketch is unfinished, which makes him seem anonymous. The Netherlands in the 1800s was a society undergoing rapid change, and we can explore this artwork through institutional archives, social surveys, newspapers, and political pamphlets. Art is made meaningful by the social and institutional contexts that inform it.