Aardappelrooiers c. 1886 - 1888

Editor: Here we have Anton Mauve's "Aardappelrooiers," or "Potato Harvesters," a pencil drawing from around 1886 to 1888. It has an unfinished quality that I find really compelling. What are your thoughts on it? Curator: I am immediately struck by the evidence of process here. Mauve’s choice of pencil, the rapid, almost frantic, lines – they speak volumes about the urgency of capturing a scene rooted in manual labor. We aren’t seeing idealized peasants, but the physical act of drawing mirroring the physical act of harvesting. What kind of pencil do you imagine he used and what was available? Editor: Hmm, probably a readily available graphite pencil of the time? I guess my mind just jumps to the aesthetic, but you're making me think about access and how that shaped the image itself. Curator: Exactly. Consider also the paper. The quality of the paper supports or constrains the making of art, does it not? Think about what a smooth versus a textured paper offers and constrains here in making. It forces a shift away from thinking about some transcendent artistic vision to consider Mauve's relation to and understanding of artistic commodities and tools available. It is through understanding that, in fact, meaning takes place. Editor: So you're saying that rather than seeing the drawing as a window into a rural scene, we should be looking at the materials and the labor of the artist themselves? It definitely makes me reconsider the roughness of the sketch; it seems more deliberate now, less accidental. Curator: Precisely! And the act of potato harvesting. The sketch provides material to contemplate the labor. He gives dignity through his gaze and craft and shows the labor intensity as central and meaningful, worthy of artistic capture. Editor: I’ll definitely be looking at art through a different lens now, thinking about the material conditions that made the work possible, and what meaning we derive from that. Curator: Yes, me too. It brings it down to earth, doesn't it, which might make the subject feel more weighty, in a way.