Doorsneden van lijsten 1876 - 1924

Curator: Welcome. We’re standing before Gerrit Willem Dijsselhof’s drawing, "Doorsneden van lijsten," which translates to "Sections of Frames". It's currently housed here at the Rijksmuseum, created sometime between 1876 and 1924 using pencil and pen. Editor: My first thought? Blueprints for another world. All those potential edges and contours floating around. The dense shadowy center, with precise shapes surrounding it…feels architectural, but also utterly dreamlike. Curator: Exactly! Dijsselhof was deeply involved in the Dutch Art Nouveau movement, which really embraced the decorative arts. It seems these are studies for various moldings or frames. Editor: Frame studies, but divorced from their ultimate purpose. Isolated, they almost become miniature landscapes, a sort of catalog of formal possibilities. I keep thinking of waves…frozen architectural waves. Curator: Well, Art Nouveau often drew inspiration from the natural world, flowing lines that evoke growth and movement. Even something as seemingly rigid as a frame section could carry those associations. And let's remember the cultural context. This piece resides between late historicism with a focus on recreating idealized history and an upcoming modern focus on purism, function, and reduced designs. In that sense, the detailed sections serve as symbols of what comes and goes. Editor: And psychologically, frames are so interesting too, because they define boundaries, create focus, even suggest what's worth cherishing. To see them deconstructed like this almost feels like an invitation to reimagine the very structures that contain our lives. I like how some seem really sturdy, classical even, and others are wispy, fragile suggestions of form. Curator: And think of what these details add to architecture as signs and reminders to trigger and transport people into new, emotional worlds and states. Each of those geometric flourishes isn’t merely decorative. It resonates with established symbolism or is assigned new, iconographic meaning. Editor: Yes! And isn't it fantastic how this seemingly practical study is actually so full of imaginative possibilities? Now I’m contemplating the invisible frames that shape my own thinking… Curator: An unexpected journey of artistic details. Editor: An indeed framed reflection for the day.