Rooiboot in een sloot, daarachter een schuur en hekken 1870 - 1908

This etching, ‘Red Boat in a Ditch, with a Shed and Fences Behind’ by Willem Bastiaan Tholen, captures a rustic scene, where a boat is laid in a waterway, with a modest shed and fences framing the view. The fence, a boundary between spaces, evokes a sense of division, but also of enclosure and protection. We can see it echoed through time. In ancient Egyptian art, fences often symbolized sacred boundaries, delineating the realms of the divine from the mortal world. Similarly, in medieval tapestries, fences could represent the border between the cultivated and the wild, the known and the unknown. Over time, the fence evolves from a symbol of the sacred to a symbol of ownership and separation. Perhaps, subconsciously, Tholen is hinting at the idea of the ownership of nature through the depiction of fences, suggesting an emotional tension between humanity and nature.