Gezicht op landgoed Bonjon ofwel Vredestein 1762 - 1783

Curator: It feels like stepping into a sepia-toned dream…a meticulously rendered dream, but a dream nonetheless. There's a stillness, an almost ghostly quality, even though the scene is bustling with detail. Editor: Indeed! What we are looking at is entitled "Gezicht op landgoed Bonjon ofwel Vredestein," rendered in pencil as well as drawing media sometime between 1762 and 1783 by A. de Nelly. It encapsulates, in many ways, the spirit of the neoclassical, even when portraying a landscape scene. Curator: Neoclassical, absolutely! I can see how this perspective serves as a fascinating lens to examine not just artistic choices but broader socio-political narratives of that period. Look at the way nature itself is almost regimented! Editor: Precisely. Landscape art like this served a purpose, it was rarely "just" pretty. Nelly highlights property, architecture and how colonial landscapes were understood and tamed and then presented. Curator: It's unsettling, right? The manicured gardens and the grand estate seem almost aggressively civilized amidst that backdrop of suggestive hills beyond. I get this weird feeling of power, the almost absurd desire to tame the wildness. Editor: I think "absurd" is a fair word, as Nelly depicts not only spatial mastery of a landscape, but this impulse towards the control of societies, as we observe from the metropolis! This resonates deeply within its colonial context. The drawing thus inadvertently presents the complex and contradictory relationship between man, nature, and dominion. Curator: You know, I initially saw beauty and order but now there is a certain melancholy as well. It's like a paradise built on…well, something less than paradise, you know? What an uneasy, potent feeling. Editor: The perspective challenges the colonial gaze back! These depictions weren’t innocent illustrations. And in truth, perhaps de Nelly captured that duality, intentionally or otherwise. Curator: Maybe the ghostly feeling comes from those buried contradictions, then. Thanks for bringing this piece of history to life and shedding light to this. Editor: It was a pleasure and you are welcome, It seems like "Vredestein," peace and stone... are in complex relations one to the other.