Gezicht op Het Zieke in Den Haag 1860 - 1885

Curator: Pieter Oosterhuis captured this compelling street scene in his work titled "Gezicht op Het Zieke in Den Haag", dating approximately from 1860 to 1885. It's part of the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: There's such a dreamy quality about this old photograph. The stillness of the water, reflecting the buildings...it almost feels like a memory being gently recalled. Curator: That reflection is precisely what caught my eye too, initially. Look at how the vertical lines of the architecture – chimneys, gables – are repeated, distorted and softened in the water below. It creates this layered effect, playing with the interplay of solidity and ephemerality. Editor: And those chimneys hint at a city breathing, industrial even. Can you imagine, back then, industry meant promise? Now we feel...complicated about it, huh? Curator: Precisely. And it adds an interesting layer, seeing industrial elements juxtaposed with this classically picturesque cityscape. The photographer really understands perspective. He compresses space while highlighting linear receding of canal banks to central vanishing. The details on those buildings too – one can almost make out shop signs... Editor: Did they use those early photography methods on stereocards like this, just so folks could have these magical three-D vacations? That really makes the whole photo so intimate. Someone was actually there looking! Curator: Indeed! By mounting this onto a stereocard Oosterhuis enabled people to travel – or at least, believe that they were traveling – to The Hague in the comfort of their own homes. Notice too that Oosterhuis uses his composition and technical craft to monumentalise The Hague and raise it to significance for an emergent modern, national identity. Editor: Right, before the internet we really *needed* this "modern experience," now lost within the old techniques, to make the foreign lands feel familiar. Curator: Exactly. We’re left pondering on an era when photography held the keys to both discovery and nation-building. Editor: A perfect slice of daydream turned monument! A moment preserved with a beautiful quiet, it lingers with you, long after you move away from it.