Het paarden spel is fraai om zien, / Ik zal er hier de schets van biên / Le tournoi bien souvent est beau, / Je vous en rendrai le tableau 1833 - 1900

Curator: Before us is an intriguing print, its full title being rather a mouthful: "Het paarden spel is fraai om zien, / Ik zal er hier de schets van biën / Le tournoi bien souvent est beau, / Je vous en rendrai le tableau.” This pen and ink drawing with engraving, created between 1833 and 1900 by Glenisson & Zonen, seems to depict scenes of horsemanship and jousting. Editor: It feels like flipping through a deck of historical playing cards – little windows into another time! There’s a rough, whimsical quality to the lines, like a child’s imaginative doodle come to life, but about much darker matters... and what's with that tiny font crammed around the images? Curator: The artist seems to explore various aspects of what might be construed a form of academic art: horses in games, equestrian battle scenes, perhaps studies for a larger work given its nature of sketching, a sort of "genre" work in its own right. Editor: I find myself drawn to the chaotic energy in the composition. Though each panel is contained, the overall impression is frenetic, full of clashing lines and figures, it is all over the place really. Each frame, some complete, other seeming more abstract. Even those horses don't seem well made in comparison to our more contemporary understanding. There's a raw quality that I find endearing; there is also no clear narrative holding this all together. What are we to make of such things?! Curator: We observe figures both on and off horseback engaged in what appears to be playful or combative interaction, perhaps referencing various modes of aristocratic pastime as rendered by someone with the skill of illustration who nonetheless wasn't that invested to making things clean or properly made. The materiality and arrangement of elements is nonetheless successful, suggesting something intentional, though the layout perhaps a product of what was convenient? Editor: Perhaps the lack of "narrative" is the point. This isn't about a story but a mood, and the medium certainly reinforces the impression: this is all based on sketch art and drawings; we aren't necessarily meant to see finished perfection. It's fascinating how much historical context you can evoke with such a limited tonal palette. Curator: Indeed. The combination of history- and genre- painting with that particular period engraving style creates something that is rather a meditation on skill and how we, as spectators and practitioners are conditioned to accept an aesthetic ideal that this deliberately breaks or falls short of. Editor: The artist captures both an interest of a possible event or style through visual cues, while expressing that their work is always based on "sketch" or draft-like sensibilities to communicate with an audience of what will never be. It is melancholic for this and I've come to greatly admire the "frenetic" state after some contemplation, despite how chaotic the entire composition seems on initial review.