Karren 1834 - 1906

Editor: We're looking at "Karren," a graphite and pencil drawing by Maria Vos, dating from 1834 to 1906. It's currently held in the Rijksmuseum. It seems like a quick sketch from a sketchbook – quite immediate, with a simple geometric quality. What captures your attention in this piece? Curator: Oh, this whispers of travel and observation, doesn't it? Vos, sketchbook in hand, quickly capturing these carts. Look at the confident lines, the implied weight and the fleeting nature of the scene. You know, it makes me wonder about the sounds of the scene, the creak of the wood, the clatter of the wheels... Can you almost hear them? I get this distinct impression of movement from it; do you feel that too, or am I just imagining the carts rolling past? Editor: I see the movement, but more in the artist's hand! It feels like a captured moment. Are these types of everyday scenes a common theme in Vos’ work? Curator: Precisely. Vos celebrated the unassuming corners of life. Think of it: sketching as a way of understanding. But what do these particular carts suggest, you think? Utility? Transport? Something more? Editor: Hmm, perhaps a sense of place and time, you know, documenting the world around her. Curator: Exactly! It is a time capsule; the world seen and translated, via Vos’s vision and hand, straight onto paper. We get a sense of immediacy, of the fleeting now becoming a longer-lasting impression of something timeless. Thanks, Maria, for stopping that little bit of time in its tracks, and letting us now peek inside.