Huis met luiken op het platteland 1833

Curator: Looking at "Huis met luiken op het platteland," or "House with Shutters in the Countryside," made in 1833 by Johannes Tavenraat, a drawing rendered in pencil and colored pencil on paper held here at the Rijksmuseum, my first thought is about how tranquil it is. Editor: I agree. It exudes a very quiet, unassuming sense of domesticity, but it begs the question of who had the privilege to enjoy such tranquility at that time. Considering this was the period of Dutch colonialism, how complicit might such idyllic scenes be in masking the harsh realities of exploitation elsewhere? Curator: That’s a very valid question. What's intriguing from a historical perspective is how Tavenraat frames this country house. The composition is quite formal; a central perspective, the emphasis on symmetry… it subtly reinforces a certain bourgeois ideal of order and control over the landscape. It mirrors the values upheld by institutions that perpetuate social inequalities. Editor: Absolutely. The almost sterile precision of the drawing further reinforces this sense of controlled domesticity, effectively erasing the messy realities of labor and social disparities that underpinned this lifestyle. The closed shutters could symbolize both privacy and perhaps a turning away from the wider social injustices that enabled such domestic tranquility. Are we looking at a curated view of reality? Curator: Perhaps we're seeing what people wanted to believe about their world, a desire for stability and order amid increasing social change. There’s a deliberate attempt to create an image of an idealized past that ignores the underlying social complexities of that era. Consider how the rural landscape was being reshaped during this period as land became increasingly commodified. Editor: Precisely. Viewing the piece in this light forces us to acknowledge not only the aesthetics but the ethics embedded in its representation. Thank you, this has completely reshaped my viewing experience! Curator: A pleasure; seeing it in that frame makes it feel quite different for me as well.