Artwork
Landscape with a Peasant Carrying Firewood
Landscape with a Peasant Carrying Firewood is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Ernst Willem Jan Bagelaar. It dates from 1800 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Overview
Ernst Willem Jan Bagelaar’s early nineteenth‑century print, titled Landscape with a Peasant Carrying Firewood, is an etching executed on white laid paper. Dated to around 1800, the work belongs to the genre of landscape prints and measures roughly the size typical of Bagelaar’s modestly scaled plates.
Subject & Meaning
The composition depicts a tranquil woodland path beside a narrow stream, where a solitary figure trudges with a bundle of firewood slung over his shoulders. Beyond the trees, a cluster of modest structures and a church spire emerge, suggesting a rural settlement that frames the scene’s quiet, everyday labor.
Technique & Style
Bagelaar employs a delicate network of incised lines to render foliage, bark and water, achieving a high level of textual detail that gives the trees a near‑organic presence. The fine hatching creates subtle tonal variations, while the clear, controlled outlines convey a calm, measured atmosphere characteristic of early Romantic landscape prints.
History & Provenance
Created circa 1800, the etching reflects Bagelaar’s engagement with Dutch print traditions at the turn of the nineteenth century. While specific ownership records are scarce, the work has appeared in several catalogues of Dutch graphic art, indicating its circulation among collectors of early modern prints.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Landscape with Four Trees
The Narrow Stream
Hunters at the Edge of the Woods
The Four Trees
Landscape with a Stream and an Ancient Tree
Albury
Travelers on a Road in a Wooded Landscape
Landscape with a Bending Tree
Landscape with River and Rock
Landscape (recto)
Fir Trees at the Water
Landscape with a Peasant Carrying Firewood