Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda c. 1833 - 1850

Curator: What a remarkably precise drawing, all clean lines and organized space! Almost… Prussian in its austerity. Editor: It reminds me of those architectural renderings from back in school. It's all so neatly delineated, like a memory carefully tidied up. Not exactly a joyride, but undeniably competent. I mean, technically speaking. Curator: Indeed. The print, housed here at the Rijksmuseum, is attributed to the Brothers van Lier and is entitled "Koninklijke Militaire Academie in Breda". Produced sometime between 1833 and 1850, this ink drawing on paper presents a formal landscape. What's interesting to me is the compositional use of contrasting horizontal and vertical lines; the buildings are horizontally placed while the sharp verticals of the trees lead your eye to the tower. Editor: And then BAM, more horizontal structure! A school, no less. Gives you that "eye of Sauron" feeling doesn't it? All those watchful windows... Makes you wonder about what was going on behind the neatly-ordered façade. You have these figures sort of loitering, as a sort of counterpoint, but who are they really? Are they watching us as much as we are watching them? Curator: An interesting proposition. The realism certainly invites scrutiny of societal elements. We can read into their placement near the tree line a tension between the ordered structure of state and the, shall we say, unruly elements of nature. This creates a potent commentary. Editor: Oh, absolutely! The shadows feel as tightly controlled as the building itself, every tiny little etched line in its place, right? You get a real sense of someone wanting to impress...but who are they trying to convince? Or are they only convincing themselves? And this neat and contained square in the middle of an overgrown mess on the ground—or does it try to present the whole territory being neat and compact? Curator: A penetrating analysis that questions the very essence of the artwork's constructed reality. Its semiotic markers, its controlled visual rhetoric. Ultimately, however, it is an intriguing formal experiment—well within the conventions of realism—and yet infused, as you say, with something disquieting. Editor: Right! Maybe this is precisely how you present authority. This image, so prim and proper...maybe that's just part of the machine that’s working, still works now! It's trying so hard to convince you it's a perfect school! A perfect anything! Makes me want to run!