Twee figuren in een zeilboot 1849 - 1895

Editor: Here we have Willem Koekkoek’s “Two Figures in a Sailboat,” a pencil drawing on paper from around the mid-19th century, currently held at the Rijksmuseum. It feels very technical, like a blueprint, but also incomplete somehow. What's your read on it? Curator: I see this as more than just a technical drawing. The skeletal depiction of the sailboat, the fragmented human presence – it all speaks to a period grappling with immense societal shifts. How can we reconcile the romanticized idea of maritime exploration with the realities of labor, trade, and exploitation that were defining this era? Editor: Exploitation? It looks so innocuous, just a sketch of a boat. Curator: Consider the historical context. The 19th century was a period of intense colonial expansion. Watercraft were tools for trade, transportation, and very often, conquest. Who were these figures on the boat? What was their relationship to the water, to the land they were approaching? We also need to ask, who was privileged enough to sail for leisure and pleasure? Editor: So, the incompleteness of the sketch… it’s perhaps mirroring an incomplete or dishonest picture of maritime activity? Curator: Precisely. The lines are tentative, suggestive. This invites us to consider the unseen, the unsaid. What histories are being erased or romanticized? It challenges us to critically examine the narrative of progress often associated with maritime endeavors. The drawing compels a conversation of a colonial, capitalist gaze of the sea, with consideration given to those who are in its path. What do you think about how the medium might amplify that conversation? Editor: I hadn't thought about it that way. Seeing it now, the sketch form itself underscores that open, unfinished, and potentially biased historical view. There’s still much to be investigated, seen and said about boats and by whom.