['A Skating Race', 'The Winter'] 1765

Curator: This is an engraving entitled "A Skating Race", also known as "The Winter," created by Rienk Jelgerhuis around 1765. The scene bustles with activity on a frozen landscape. What stands out to you initially? Editor: The starkness. The entire composition seems drained of color. Everything feels a bit...clinical, as though the scene were recorded for posterity, less a lived event and more a societal record. Curator: That's an interesting take. Given its historical context, consider the material conditions of printmaking during the mid-18th century. The emphasis isn't solely on the event, but rather on the artist's labor and the engraving process itself. The lines, the cross-hatching—it speaks to a skilled craftsman meticulously recreating a scene of leisure and labor. Editor: And whose leisure is this really serving? I look at this frozen landscape populated with people and what is really standing out for me is a reflection of 18th-century Dutch society. The well-dressed onlookers versus those who appear engaged in some labor...there's a definite social hierarchy presented here, isn’t there? This public space clearly serves as a stage for observing societal structures. Curator: Absolutely. Think about the commodification of images, the burgeoning print market catering to a specific clientele, documenting and, perhaps, idealizing aspects of Dutch life. It's about making a profit as much as it is about making art. The material conditions inform its socio-political purpose. Editor: You are probably right, I’m just fixated on the ways art in public becomes almost an unconscious form of reinforcement and institutionalization, especially here, where public pastimes such as a skating race are the explicit subjects. We need only look at our own historical moment to remember art has always had a sociopolitical life. Curator: Precisely, and with that in mind, let's consider the labor involved in ice-skating, for example: From skatesmiths forging the blades to street sweepers maintaining the rink's surface, it all adds another material layer of the art in general. Editor: Point well-taken, I'll be reflecting more on how materials and society worked here as well. Curator: I agree; this piece helps us realize how historical and political factors go hand-in-hand in image construction and reception.