Boer c. 1828 - 1897

Curator: Adrianus Eversen's pencil sketch, "Boer," from approximately 1828 to 1897, presents a humble figure rendered in light strokes on toned paper. Editor: There's a beautiful immediacy to it. Raw and unfinished, like a thought barely captured. I am quite attracted by the unassuming sketch quality; it provides an honest aesthetic! Curator: That quality reflects the period’s fascination with depicting ordinary life, with a subtle air of social realism taking shape through humble sketches of figures such as this “Boer”, that would certainly invoke the people of the rural South African ancestry. Editor: It's the economic access to tools and surfaces like pencil and paper that democratizes artmaking. Think about who *could* create portraits. This one suggests a middle-class origin, practicing technique, honing skills. How many others of his community and social status could benefit of making and sketching figures on paper with pencils? Curator: Indeed. Notice how the averted gaze and slouching posture suggest a reserved personality, or even social submissiveness, values possibly cultivated and promoted by dominant colonial discourses about native and local individuals like this "Boer" subject. Editor: And the sketchy lines also could mirror an incomplete development of professional artists of this period, like his fellow middle-class artists developing portraits and painting for similar folks. Was this a prototype? Or a complete work? Curator: Perhaps it served as a study for a larger work that, while lost to us, still subtly contributes to our collective memory. I wonder, what inner story it holds. Editor: Or perhaps it never transformed into anything, and therefore we see art through this image from another lense. Curator: That's a stimulating interpretation. It shows us not just the final image, but also the process of making that we might want to contemplate and re-assess. Editor: A glimpse behind the scenes of artistic labor of Eversen’s world indeed. This brief encounter has reshaped my appreciation for art production.