Big die eet uit een trog 1886

Editor: Okay, so this etching is titled *Big die eet uit een trog*, which translates to "Pig Eating From a Trough". It was done by Richard Nicolaüs Roland Holst around 1886 and it's here at the Rijksmuseum. It’s pretty simple – a pig, a trough, a fence. There's a rather melancholy feel to it though, don't you think? The way the light hits the pig, it almost feels like a portrait. What jumps out at you when you look at this? Curator: Melancholy, yes, I can feel that too. It makes me think about our connection to the natural world, doesn’t it? Holst, you know, had this way of elevating these everyday scenes… Ordinary farm life imbued with dignity, and maybe even a touch of quiet desperation, all those ordinary longings we project, the eternal *yensh* for satisfaction and meaning, captured here in, of all things, a pig. See how the heavy etching lines kind of swallow the pig in shadow, suggesting impermanence? Editor: Absolutely. It’s strange, I wasn’t expecting something so seemingly… grounded… to make me think about existentialism! Was Holst part of any particular art movement at the time? Curator: Good question! He’s often associated with Realism, given his subject matter. But there’s a deeper Symbolist sensibility bubbling under the surface. I mean, look at the pig again, rooted to the trough, oblivious. Maybe it is commentary about humanity or our insatiable appetites? Holst's using something very concrete – the pig, the trough, the mud – to suggest something so vast. It's really quite a sly feat. Does this not challenge what "Realism" truly suggests or offers? Editor: So, not just what *is*, but what *could be*? I guess I initially underestimated this artwork, it really is just steeped with meaning beyond its obvious simple qualities. Curator: Isn’t it brilliant? Art whispering its secrets…Sometimes, a pig is more than just a pig. Always a pig. And everything in between.