Koetsier in zijn rijtuig getrokken door twee paarden 1819

Curator: Here we have Johann Adam Klein's "Coachman in his Carriage Pulled by Two Horses," created in 1819. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: There’s a wonderfully theatrical quality to it, isn’t there? Almost like a stage set – horses, coach, driver – each element presented with equal importance. Makes me wonder what kind of story this little stage is meant to tell. Curator: Indeed. Klein was working in a period when equestrian portraiture and carriage scenes were extremely popular, especially amongst the rising middle class aspiring to aristocratic display. The work would allow viewers to reflect on wealth and upward social mobility. Editor: Absolutely! It's interesting to consider this through that lens. Still, there’s a kind of dreaminess about the composition that prevents it from feeling too... pompous? Look at the horses. It feels like they might evaporate any second. Curator: That's perhaps down to Klein's skill as a draughtsman, his expert rendering of light and shadow with pen and ink. We are seeing an echo of a trend toward greater naturalism within the Romantic art movements of the period. Also we need to bear in mind, of course, that this is not a finished painting but a pen illustration, probably from the artist's sketchbook. Editor: Sketchbook or no sketchbook, I love how free and intuitive it feels. And somehow so charmingly melancholy, as if remembering a world that's already slipping away... or about to. That probably has a lot to do with the grayscale. If there were colors it would read entirely differently. Curator: A valid point. Black-and-white artwork brings in different context to interpretation, like photography did. Editor: Right, and given that history, if I had to live inside one work from this museum, this might be it. Somewhere in the background on that horizon. Curator: An idyllic setting with which to ponder history, culture and self. Editor: You said it. What more could we ask for from a humble, almost cartoon-ish sketch?