Drie geiten met aan weerzijden koeienkoppen en ezelskoppen 1821 - 1869

Editor: Here we have “Three Goats Surrounded by Heads of Cows and Donkeys," made sometime between 1821 and 1869 by Christiaan Godfried Schutze van Houten. It looks like a pen-and-ink sketch. It feels very...folksy, in a way. What stands out to you when you look at this work? Curator: I see a glimpse into the artist’s inner world. This drawing reads as a kind of personal bestiary, a gathering of animal symbols loaded with cultural weight. Consider the goat: historically linked to both virility and stubbornness, often used as a scapegoat in various mythologies. And the surrounding heads – the bovine, suggestive of plenty and groundedness, juxtaposed with the donkey, a symbol of humility and, perhaps unfairly, foolishness. Editor: So you're saying the artist chose these specific animals deliberately? Curator: I believe so. The assembly isn't random. It feels like the artist is working through a set of characteristics, perhaps even wrestling with aspects of themselves or others in their life. What story might the artist be trying to tell us with these contrasting symbols? Editor: Maybe it is the artist representing different human qualities that can co-exist in a community, or maybe even within a single person? There’s a kind of innocent strangeness to the image that really gets me thinking. Curator: Indeed! These archetypal symbols persist across time and culture, reflecting the ongoing human fascination with self-understanding. And in sketching them, Van Houten engages with that same, ancient tradition. A humble sketch, yet potent with meaning. Editor: I hadn’t considered the deeper symbolic meaning until you pointed it out. Now I see so much more! Thanks for sharing that insight!