Staande man met pijp en kruik 1777 - 1779

Curator: Let's examine Pieter de Mare's "Standing Man with Pipe and Jug," dating back to 1777-1779, here at the Rijksmuseum. The engraving captures a single figure in what I'd say is genre-painting style. What are your immediate thoughts on encountering it? Editor: It's remarkably tactile for an engraving. I can practically feel the roughness of the man's clothes and the cool, glazed surface of that jug he's holding. You immediately notice the textures due to the engraving technique. Curator: Indeed. Consider how tobacco, depicted here with the pipe and jug, came to represent leisure and contemplation but also ideas related to trade routes and colonialism at the time. What kind of memory gets stirred for you when viewing these icons? Editor: Well, that jug, particularly its manufacture and everyday use, highlights the intersections of art, craft, and the burgeoning consumer culture. The engraving process itself, meticulously reproduced, made such imagery more accessible, feeding that consumption, so in that respect the meaning might extend out of representation into the mechanics of its time. Curator: Good point. Beyond the commercial implications, one wonders about the depicted individual, too. There's a vulnerability in his gaze and posture, hinting at something deeper than just enjoying leisure time. Do you see a symbolism or cultural significance present that points past his contemporary era? Editor: Perhaps, although the very ordinariness of the subject is, in a way, remarkable. It invites one to think about the lives of ordinary workers, how materials and skills, like pipe-making, played such a vital part. The value lies in it showing that labor, materials, and commerce touch even the individual, isolated as this fellow appears to be. Curator: Ultimately, Pieter de Mare presents us with more than a snapshot of a man enjoying his pipe. He's offering a glimpse into the interconnected webs of culture, commerce, and individual identity. Editor: A reminder that even seemingly simple images conceal layers of social context and material realities waiting to be uncovered, particularly because engravings allow an expansion and distribution unavailable at a craft level, or with original portraiture.