Schaatsers op bevroren rivier 1842 - 1843

Editor: Here we have "Skaters on a Frozen River," an engraving from around 1842 by Franciscus Bernardus Waanders, housed here at the Rijksmuseum. It strikes me as… rather bleak, almost monochromatic. There’s life in it, sure, but also this very definite sense of cold, stillness even. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Cold, yes, but doesn't that cold hold a certain sparkling light? Imagine, if you will, the sharp intake of breath as the air nips at your cheeks. This isn’t just a record of a frozen river, but a window into a specific moment, a specific *feeling*. The very air feels thin and crisp, doesn’t it? Notice the subtle greys; how they almost whisper of human activity against nature's stillness? There is romance here; think of it as a quiet song humming on the wind. Editor: I hadn't thought of "romance". I was focusing so much on the grays, I almost missed the detail! Curator: Precisely! This piece really dances on that precipice between the beauty and the brutal, no? The romantic movement was really playing with that – finding the sublime even in moments that feel outwardly… austere. Isn't there almost a story held within that tableau? One about warmth and belonging in this almost solitary setting? It speaks to resilience and making light of cold landscapes if you ask me! Editor: So, more than just a landscape, it’s also capturing a way of life? And an emotion tied to that? I’m definitely seeing it with fresh eyes now. Thanks! Curator: That's it entirely! It feels wonderfully layered and deeply evocative if you simply give it a bit of time! The artist hands us the stage, you see, and it is for us to begin play acting the human tale… Isn’t that fantastic?