Studie c. 1881 - 1888

Curator: Welcome. We're standing before "Studie", a compelling pencil drawing by Anton Mauve, dating approximately from 1881 to 1888. It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Immediately, there's this somber, almost claustrophobic feeling I get from the heavy charcoal... or maybe it's graphite? It hems in this tiny, brighter rectangle where this little... tree-like squiggle is hanging out. What's the vibe, exactly? Like peering into someone's hazy memory. Curator: Precisely. The composition divides rather starkly. Observe the textural contrast: a roughly textured field created with vigorous, almost frantic strokes, juxtaposed with a smooth, defined area. It yields an ambiguous interplay of abstraction and representation. Editor: And what is represented though? My brain wants to make it a window, overlooking a stark landscape, you know, that scribble of a tree clinging to… nothing? I like that it doesn't tell me the whole story; just drops a hint and then smudges the rest. Curator: The materiality is interesting; Mauve masterfully employs the pencil to manipulate tonal range, suggesting both depth and flattening the pictorial space. The work hints at landscape conventions, almost subverting them. Note also that while the palette is severely restricted to blacks, greys and browns, yet subtle tonal shifts provide structure to the composition. Editor: It is cool how he’s managing to do that – create such strong separation, then blur it so it kind of blends together, creating something new. But ultimately, it's a solitary tree surviving whatever bleak, dark storm’s swirling outside its tiny haven. Maybe it IS kind of romantic and beautiful! Curator: Its beauty lies in its suggestive power, the semiotic resonance it creates by refusing to be literal. And the starkness… what could it imply about the fin-de-siècle mood in which Mauve created this evocative sketch? It opens numerous interpretative routes… Editor: It’s funny though, because the longer I look, the less sure I am of what anything really is, like I'm watching meaning just sort of crumble away! It really has grabbed me though – I think because of that uncertainty, its open rawness. I just can't help feeling something from it!