Pier in Scheveningen 

Editor: This is Jules Schmalzigaug’s "Pier in Scheveningen", and it seems to be a watercolor piece. I’m really drawn to the artist’s loose brushstrokes, the colours all blend together, but it's somewhat unsettling. I wonder how we should be interpreting it? Curator: I see this piece as reflecting a societal shift, capturing a moment of leisure yet tinged with a certain unease that characterizes early 20th-century Europe. Schmalzigaug painted in the milieu of rapid industrialization, urbanization and growing class awareness, after all. How might the pier itself, as a structure of leisure and entertainment, play into that narrative? Editor: I hadn’t thought of it like that. I saw the pier mostly as scenery. So the pier being a new venue changed who got to be depicted in a landscape painting like this? Curator: Precisely. Now think about impressionism; how it brought modern life to the artistic world. What do the crowds gathering to watch the artist contribute to the piece? How do their opinions shape what makes it into museums, influencing its reception? Editor: It does put it in a new light to think of the art world’s development in that way. To think, the art market’s influence on this very impressionistic watercolor artwork could alter it more drastically than any stroke of colour on the beach in Scheveningen. Curator: Exactly, the painting becomes less a depiction of a landscape and more of an interpretation of contemporary culture and art patronage during that period. Editor: I will look at Impressionism differently from now on! Thanks!