Rejsedagbog. Amsterdam 1846

Curator: This page, "Rejsedagbog. Amsterdam" from 1846 by Johan Thomas Lundbye is deceptively simple. Editor: It looks like a page torn from a travel journal, mostly text on paper. It's quite intimate. What do you see in it? Curator: The labour of its creation! We have to consider the materials available to Lundbye: the paper, likely handmade; the ink, perhaps mixed on site. How did these affect the mark making, the pressure applied to the page? How does this intersect with landscape? Editor: Landscape? I mainly see text. Curator: But what *is* landscape art if not the result of someone transforming an experience in nature into a commodity, an object? The ink and paper themselves are material resources extracted from the earth. Look at the *writing*. Lundbye's careful script tells us about the education and social class available to him, a form of social "material." Do you agree with that analysis? Editor: I do. Seeing the production aspect highlights how even a personal item, like a travel diary, is linked to economic and social structures. It makes me consider the value placed on these types of creative skills within that context, like access to suitable material, social status, or educational possibilities. Curator: Exactly! By considering the material and processes involved, we move beyond merely admiring the final product and engage with the socio-economic conditions that made it possible. We can trace these choices to the artistic intent. Editor: That really reframes how I see this; it's less about what the writing describes and more about the act of its making and the resources that enabled it. Curator: Indeed, seeing the materials transforms the image.