Tour des halles, Bruges before 1866

Curator: What strikes me immediately about this drawing, Tour des halles, Bruges, is the loneliness of the structure, towering like a ghost. Editor: Ah, Cundall & Fleming captured more than just a building before 1866, I suspect. I see the weight of the market hall. Curator: Weight as in, importance? Or weight in the sheer, material sense? Editor: Both. Consider the labor invested in such a place – think of the traders hauling goods, the stonecutters, the people milling about exchanging. That drawing romanticizes commerce into something picturesque and strangely quiet. Curator: Yes, the human bustle is totally absent, isn't it? Though, paradoxically, for me, it breathes with potential. I imagine voices, bartering, all the unpictured clamor, as though they have only just ceased and might resume the instant we turn away. It feels expectant, doesn't it? Editor: I am mostly intrigued by this structure – drawing on paper— it speaks of privilege to have the resources to create such a detailed representation of this impressive tower and building! Not so many, at this time, would have these resources at their fingertips! What kind of consumer was intended for this art? What did its potential buyers consume that they might consider this purchase?! Curator: Hmm, someone yearning for, and very likely profiting from, international trade, perhaps? It might have been hung in an office. Yet it also exudes nostalgia, wouldn't you agree? The tower looms grand, perhaps overly grand, its isolation emphasized by the stark paper surrounding it. Almost elegiac. Editor: That may be so. But as an art object, that piece of paper testifies to social stratification of that period... to whom the building would mean what is perhaps now lost. The materials, the act, the commission - if any - all reveal stories about a Bruges that isn't present. Curator: I am reminded that, by turning their attention to an architectural subject in faraway Bruges, they may also speak to cultural trends of seeing. This might suggest to viewers a Bruges as picturesque backdrop… It raises question for the commodification of experience – very thought provoking! Editor: Right, very true. Curator: It makes you wonder about what the materials are hiding. Editor: Or revealing… in unexpected ways.