Koppen 1840 - 1860

This small drawing was made by Johannes Tavenraat, and it depicts a sketch of a hare above a series of heads. The hare, leaping across the top, is a symbol heavy with cultural associations. Throughout history, the hare has been associated with fertility, and renewal, harking back to ancient spring festivals. Yet, this symbolism takes a darker turn as the hare is also an animal of the hunt, forever the hunted. Consider how the hare appears in Albrecht Dürer's famous watercolor, where it is rendered with almost scientific precision, devoid of the dynamism we see here. Here, Tavenraat captures the animal in mid-leap, a burst of vitality suspended over a series of stoic male faces, hinting at a primal tension between freedom and constraint. This tension evokes a deeply embedded psychological resonance, an echo of our own fleeting existence and the ever-present awareness of mortality. The hare becomes a symbol of the life force, a "pharmakon," both cure and poison, reminding us of the cyclical nature of existence.