Twee voorstellingen met een beer en een koe 1837 - 1843

Editor: Here we have Victor Adam’s "Twee voorstellingen met een beer en een koe," or “Two Depictions of a Bear and a Cow," created between 1837 and 1843, a pencil drawing from the Rijksmuseum’s collection. I am struck by the simple, almost scientific quality of the depiction; both animals seem very still and posed. What do you make of it? Curator: I see this drawing not simply as a detached observation but as a document deeply embedded in the social and economic contexts of its time. Look at the bear. The labor involved in acquiring its image – hunting, or access to a menagerie, then the skill involved in drawing it – all points to a relationship between humans and the natural world predicated on domination. Editor: Domination? How so? Curator: Consider the materiality of the pencil itself. Graphite mined and processed, representing a whole industrial network, now being used to depict a wild creature rendered passive. And the cow too, wearing a yoke, a symbol of its function within agricultural production. Editor: So you are saying the medium becomes part of the message? Curator: Precisely! It’s not just *what* is being represented but *how*, and *with what*. These choices reflect and reinforce prevailing power structures, showing us a world seen through a very particular, and manufactured, lens. Do you see the different textures rendered by the pencil and the quality of the paper? Both reflect manufacturing processes of the period, creating hierarchies of making and use. Editor: It is remarkable to consider how something as seemingly simple as a pencil drawing is tied into all these economic and social structures. I had not thought of it that way! Curator: Art never exists in a vacuum; its very creation and existence are shaped by the material conditions and power dynamics of its time. Considering process helps us understand not only the subject matter but also its social life.