Landschap met ruiter en wandelaar 1798 - 1837

Curator: Ernst Willem Jan Bagelaar, a name I adore saying, created this engraving called "Landscape with Rider and Walker." The range for the date is quite wide—anytime between 1798 and 1837. What grabs you right away? Editor: The light, definitely the light! The way it peeks through the trees gives it almost a stage-like quality. Makes me think of journeys, the paths we take, sometimes clear, sometimes shadowed. It is calling to a symbolic path toward enlightenment, isn’t it? Curator: Perhaps, though knowing Bagelaar, I wouldn’t be surprised if he simply stumbled upon a particularly lovely forest clearing. But, thinking symbolically, consider that light isn't uniformly distributed—look at how deep the shade is in the lower left. Could that interplay between shadow and light itself be symbolic? A representation of our inner landscape, perhaps? Editor: Oh, absolutely! And notice how small the figures of the rider and walker are—almost swallowed by the immensity of the nature surrounding them? Their diminutive size reminds us of human beings dwarfed by a larger symbolic world, of mythic heroes diminished when confronted by primordial nature. Or is that just me going a bit too deep? Curator: Never! I think Bagelaar, even if unintentionally, captured that feeling we all have sometimes—that sense of being utterly small against something vast and unknowable. The precision of line engraving is perfect to illustrate this sensation with a high level of detail—down to the filigree on the leaves. I love it. Editor: Agreed. The choice of engraving serves the allegorical depth beautifully. The figures may be literally small, yet stand in their quietude for something larger, speaking through archetypes across a forest-scape. Curator: The landscape in art is frequently seen to carry hidden truths in a realistic style like Bagelaar deployed, and the people act only as observers or participants. What we can't discount, for it plays on a person's feelings, is that the very detailed forest that has swallowed the walkers could perhaps one day swallow us too! What remains clear, however, is that Bagelaar's print certainly gives you food for thought.