Namiddag / L Apresdinee 1702 - 1726

Curator: Before us hangs "Namiddag / L Apresdinee," an engraving and etching created between 1702 and 1726 by Pieter van den Berge, residing here in the Rijksmuseum collection. What strikes you initially about this genre scene? Editor: The overwhelming impression is one of labor. The level of detail achieved through etching is astonishing, hinting at hours upon hours spent meticulously carving away at the plate. I'm particularly drawn to the depiction of fabrics. The textures… incredible! Curator: Indeed. Van den Berge, working during the Dutch Golden Age, captures a quiet domesticity, but elevates it, doesn't he? These are likely not simply ordinary folk gathered for tea. Note the display of valuable pottery behind the figures! There's a delicate tension between showing off affluence and an underlying humbleness inherent in such detailed representations of daily life. Editor: Absolutely. And that wealth would have trickled down to him. Producing detailed work like this supported a market eager for luxury and status symbols. But what kind of labor went into this "relaxing afternoon"? Did the subjects collaborate to support artistic economies or did they exploit them? And the objects depicted - the tea, the ceramics, the textiles. This image is about so much more than a friendly get together, it reveals trade, colonialism, consumption, and taste. Curator: I suppose it’s easy to become lost in romanticism; however, your materialism centers us, drawing our focus back to tangible, often overlooked aspects of this work. Perhaps its beauty and impact truly are bound by labor—the artist’s hours, his skill in deploying tools to produce that beauty, as well as the resources it depicts? Editor: Precisely. Thinking about what’s been exchanged, acquired and traded. Even this artistic method with such rich and powerful meaning - the paper itself! Thinking about everything involved shifts focus from simply aesthetic contemplation towards active, critical thought. Curator: Indeed, and so from leisurely observation it becomes about connecting materials, moments, hands, the bird fluttering about overhead and the lives behind them. Editor: A perspective for active appreciation!