Sloot bij de Gemeentelijke Gasfabriek in de Binckhorst in Den Haag 1888 - 1931

Editor: Here we have "Sloot bij de Gemeentelijke Gasfabriek in de Binckhorst in Den Haag", or "Ditch near the Municipal Gas Factory in the Binckhorst in The Hague", a print by Willem Adrianus Grondhout, made sometime between 1888 and 1931. It's an etching, a technique that I always find so delicate. I'm immediately drawn to the contrast between the detailed foreground and the hazy background. What catches your eye? Curator: Well, it tickles my imagination, that's for sure. Grondhout's choice of subject… a gas factory ditch… it’s not exactly picturesque in the conventional sense, is it? But isn't it wonderful? I love how he finds this inherent beauty in the mundane. I find myself wondering what it smelled like… Can you imagine, juxtaposing the olfactory offense of industrialization with the delicate art of etching? He has these really beautiful trees framing the factory… What do you suppose Grondhout wants us to *feel* as we look at this? Editor: Maybe he wants us to think about progress and its consequences? Or perhaps he’s simply showing us what *is*, without judgment. The quiet scene reflected on the water makes it pretty compelling. Curator: Precisely! There's a lovely calmness, almost a stillness to it, which the technique only reinforces. Do you think that stillness is due to it being an etching? Editor: Perhaps. The etching lends it a certain… nostalgia, even though it's depicting a very modern scene. It's like looking at a memory. Curator: A memory, yes! Or perhaps a warning... a hint of something vanishing as industrialisation rolls over everything. Art makes us think of the times, and how different it all was back then. This reminds me we should sometimes simply stop and *observe*… before it all disappears in a puff of… well, you know! Editor: It definitely provides a new way of looking at everyday landscapes. I didn't expect to find this kind of depth in what seemed like just a simple, industrial-adjacent scene. Thanks!