Hemellichaam, gevleugeld paard en vis 1936

Lodewijk Schelfhout made this etching called 'Celestial body, winged horse and fish', but we're not sure exactly when. At first glance, the combination of mythical and mundane creatures seems purely whimsical, even surreal. But there's a serious side to this. Schelfhout was working in the Netherlands during the interwar period, a time of immense social upheaval. Much art of this period reflects the tensions between tradition and modernity. The winged horse, or Pegasus, with its classical associations, is juxtaposed here with a common fish, swimming in ordinary water under a modern sun. In whose world can those elements co-exist? Schelfhout’s work invites us to reflect on the transformative power of art, its capacity to reconcile the everyday with the extraordinary. To understand this piece better, we might delve into Dutch literature and folklore of the period or study exhibition records to understand how such images were received. Art doesn't exist in a vacuum.