Gezicht op Huis te Werve vanuit de tuin 1926

Curator: This is Simon Moulijn’s, "Gezicht op Huis te Werve vanuit de tuin", a landscape from 1926 rendered in ink. Editor: My initial reaction is… peaceful detachment. There's a distinct sense of looking at this scene from afar, separated from the domestic space. Like observing a forgotten corner of life through gauze. Curator: Absolutely, a dreamlike serenity. And note how Moulijn emphasizes the organic world against the house's structure. Those imposing trees almost swallow the facade. The manmade looks fragile, reclaimed. I wonder if there are tensions about how country houses relate to nature in his other works, or about how to reconcile ideas of modernity with those of pastoral escape… Editor: Right. Ink, mass-produced and readily available at the time, brings the landed gentry back down to earth—the materials suggest democratization even when the subject whispers of exclusivity and separation from common manufacture or experience. Plus the meticulous lines making up the scene – they give it this quality of obsessive observation but it all dissolves into this shimmering scene anyway. Curator: Indeed, he masterfully contrasts rigidity with a flowing quality. Those intricate details give it this palpable tactile presence but they give way to the light that pours over the house itself. Almost making the scene glow! Did this drawing serve more as a preliminary exploration of material? Or do you see other purposes in its design and potential utility? Editor: Well, landscapes are typically coded that way, though maybe less subtly, to suggest the nobility of simple labour when, let's be clear, domestic life at a house like that would hardly imply any personal experience with labour unless it’s overseeing labour for the inhabitants' leisure… so I guess this might play on or subvert the trope… a scene about work, made possible by labor itself. The choice of the common ink contrasts and therefore might emphasize this class element Curator: Yes, Moulijn makes the material visible… this dialogue between medium and meaning, so that we are constantly kept in suspense. The effect, ultimately, lies not in the grand house or scene alone, but this careful and even reverent treatment that emphasizes making. I am always humbled by a picture that looks simple until you learn the whole world of care invested. Editor: So true. In short, Moulijn gives us a whole society caught in a drawing.