A Windmill near Delft 1857

Editor: Johan Barthold Jongkind's "A Windmill near Delft," painted in 1857 with oil paint, strikes me as deceptively simple. The brushstrokes feel so loose, almost unfinished, yet they capture a whole atmosphere. How should we approach looking at this? Curator: Let's start by considering the windmill itself. It’s not just a picturesque object, but a key piece of infrastructure, reliant on particular processes, the movement of air. Who owns it? Who benefits from its products, and how does the production itself relate to Delft’s economic situation at the time? Editor: That's fascinating, I was only looking at the colours. You are right. What about the people depicted around the canal? Are they also part of that social and economic network linked to the Windmill? Curator: Precisely. Are they involved in transportation? Doing laundry that will be sold? Consider the means of production on display: the water, the boat, the raw materials to produce paint itself – each a commodity in its own right with distinct economic and labor relationships behind them. Editor: It challenges my initial focus on just the “beauty” of the scene. By considering those networks of labour and materiality, the artistic quality becomes about documenting or observing this community at work and in activity. Curator: Exactly. And Jongkind, working "en plein air," faced the challenge of representing not just a scene, but a dynamic network of material and human interactions in a moment in time, transformed later into this commodity, a painting. The materiality and methods intersect in a market of its own, contributing further economic activities. Editor: So, by looking at the materials, the subject matter, and even the process of creation, we uncover so much about the social context of this piece! Thank you! Curator: A Materialist approach moves us beyond mere aesthetic appreciation, encouraging us to think critically about how this artwork connects to the lives and material realities of its time.