Zittende man bij een kruiwagen met hooi 1828

Curator: This ink and pencil drawing is titled "Seated Man by a Wheelbarrow with Hay" and was created by Anthonie Willem Hendrik Nolthenius de Man around 1828. Editor: What strikes me is the quiet exhaustion of it all. The hay practically engulfs him, and the man seems completely resigned. Curator: Well, Nolthenius de Man was known for his genre scenes and landscapes, often capturing everyday life with a sense of realism. The image might be commenting on the labor involved in agricultural work at the time. Editor: It’s more than just labor. Look at the detail in the wheel; those spokes look so thin and precarious. I feel like any minute it’ll all collapse. Metaphorically speaking of course! It adds to this sense of fragility in his existence. Curator: Perhaps. This was a time of significant social change and agrarian crisis in Europe, so such imagery of struggling laborers did resonate. The art world itself was changing, and the Salon system faced new pressures. Works began speaking more to and about common folk and less for royalty. Editor: Right. It feels deliberately unidealized, unlike the landscapes portraying idealized versions of farm life by others. Curator: And that's important because it's suggesting that our role in art institutions as critics is also to view art's role in that kind of reform as an attempt to mirror socio-political landscapes. Editor: Well, if he can carry all that hay on his back like that I feel he is more like a hero of old instead of an average guy from the field. A kind of understated quiet power. Curator: And from a historian’s point of view, you see what Nolthenius de Man created fits within the context of portraying laborers with newfound visibility, as an active member of the lower class. Editor: So we end up viewing something we saw at first glance in one way now more concretely connected with the outside world! Curator: Precisely.