Study for Landscape with a Girl and Two Goats c. 1874 - 1875

Curator: This delicate pencil drawing, "Study for Landscape with a Girl and Two Goats," dates from around 1874-1875 and is by the Dutch artist Matthijs Maris. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. What's your initial read on this sketch, in terms of its imagery? Editor: It feels…fragmented, dreamlike. The wispy lines give an impression of a fleeting moment, or perhaps a half-remembered scene. I am caught by the repetition of the girl’s figures but also how unreal it all seems, like a visual echo. Curator: Interesting observation. Maris was known for his very specific kind of tonalism and the art market cultivated that particular kind of melancholic vision in the later 19th century. This sheet of sketches really seems to show his mind at work. We see multiple attempts at the figures. It speaks to his exploration of form, not just depiction. Editor: It almost reads like a personal iconography being developed. There is the youthful maiden, always a charged subject in art, the landscape fading into the background, the vulnerable animals... They resonate on a deeply personal, perhaps even archetypal level. Curator: Well, landscape was changing as a cultural touchstone during that period, especially in the Netherlands. The country became much more industrialized, and with this you begin to see the rise of "landscape" as a kind of nostalgic symbol for simpler times. It's interesting that even in these preparatory sketches we see the bare bones of that ideology coming into view. Editor: And those goats! Throughout history, goats have been powerful symbols of vitality, stubbornness, and even sacrifice. Their presence adds a layer of complexity. Curator: Absolutely. The question becomes, what would it mean for Maris, a fairly progressive, urban painter to include goats with the girl? What kind of connotations would it lend to a finished painting? It becomes another example of how even sketches can speak to the larger themes swirling around an artist. Editor: It makes one wonder about the unseen painting that would have risen from these notes. But these images themselves remain potent with possibilities. Curator: I agree, seeing the process is as intriguing as seeing the completed piece, sometimes even more.