Staande koe, naar rechts 1820

Curator: Before us we have "Standing Cow, Facing Right," a pencil drawing created around 1820 by Jean Bernard. It is currently held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum. Editor: There's a strange peacefulness radiating from this seemingly simple depiction of a cow. The pencil work creates such delicate gradations of light and shadow. It's like the essence of bovine serenity captured on paper. Curator: The rendering certainly evokes a rural harmony, a subtle pastoral idyll which resonated powerfully with the social sensibilities of the era. Think about the rise of agrarianism, the romanticization of rural life… Editor: Absolutely. It reminds me how much livestock were prized at the time, beyond their utilitarian value. They almost embodied a family's sustenance, security. The details on the cow itself, like the curved horns, don't necessarily suggest idealization, but rather an observed, perhaps even loving eye. Curator: Yes, exactly. It seems this piece eschews explicit symbolism, but through a realistic lens presents ideas about wealth, power, and natural beauty...consider too, the tradition in art of rendering certain types of animals with very specific, inherited visual features. This work builds on that. Editor: I see it as a portrait in the most literal sense. A record. Not so much of the individual cow, but perhaps the era it represents; that moment of relative peace before the major societal disruptions about to be brought about by urbanization and industrial change...There’s also something deeply comforting in this simplicity, too, the mundane elevated through skilled observation. Curator: It is a picture that continues to connect us to the pastoral narratives that run deep through our history, our shared idea of home and sustenance. A window to what daily life was for our forbearers. Editor: It strikes me now as an unassuming symbol of resilience, reflecting our long relationship with the natural world, as our definition of our surroundings and society evolves and reforms across the centuries.