Studieblad met mast van een schip 1870 - 1931

Curator: Here we have "Studieblad met mast van een schip," or "Study Sheet with Ship Mast," by Willem Bastiaan Tholen, likely created sometime between 1870 and 1931. It’s currently part of the Rijksmuseum collection. What's your initial reaction to it? Editor: A bit sparse, honestly. There's this pale expanse of sky, two birds sketched in, and then the ship's mast anchored in the lower left. It's almost melancholic, an unfinished thought hanging in the air. Curator: That sparse quality aligns with Tholen's Impressionist tendencies, emphasizing the fleeting impression of a scene. He was part of the Hague School, after all, and they often captured the moods of the Dutch landscape. We should also take note of the materials he uses here: drawing done in pencil and watercolor. Editor: Definitely, the light watercolor gives it that hazy, almost dreamlike feel. Makes me wonder about maritime labor at the time – these ships, for many, represented work, trade, potentially exploitation under colonialism, or forced servitude. Is that absence intentional, a comment, perhaps, on those hidden narratives? Curator: Interesting point. It does ask us to fill in the blanks. He was very interested in the industrialized waterways and the changing landscape of Dutch commerce, however the absence you observe could definitely make way for alternative perspectives of the impact of this mast and it’s representation in the present. Tholen's style focuses more on depicting a kind of modern beauty instead of the gritty work involved, even though both coexist in society. Editor: Yes. And who typically has the leisure to observe and idealize a ship mast? Probably not the sailor clinging to it during a storm! Perhaps the image romanticizes that relationship to maritime labor while further omitting the human component. The drawing feels like it beckons more of an interrogation on the history behind the piece. Curator: Perhaps so. In this image we can see a landscape, as you said, sparse. There are two birds etched out almost abstractly, seemingly unbothered and soaring through what one can only imagine is a windy, atmospheric seascape. Maybe Tholen attempts to do the same—allowing his artwork to have the same lightness of being, while beckoning reflection from its viewers. Thank you for your perspectives. Editor: A pleasure!