Jongen en boer met een stuk landbouwgereedschap c. 1868s - 1878s

Jan Willem van Borselen made this sketch of a boy and a farmer with an agricultural tool. Look closely at the farmer's tool; it resembles a trident. This object is laden with symbolism. The trident immediately brings to mind the Greek god Poseidon, who wielded it to command the seas. But its prongs also suggest the Holy Trinity, or even a pitchfork which makes us consider the changing image of the Devil across time. The artist is drawing from a shared pool of collective memory, tapping into our subconscious associations. The farmer’s serious demeanor also conveys an intense emotional state, a sense of the weight of the past, of tradition. The image is both simple, of a boy and farmer in a field, and complex, invoking images from our history. Symbols shift and resurface, proving that history is not linear. Van Borselen’s image has been recontextualized as a sketch in the Rijksmuseum.