Studieblad met figuren in Middeleeuwse kleding 1820 - 1872

Curator: Hendrik Abraham Klinkhamer created this ink drawing on paper sometime between 1820 and 1872. It's titled "Studieblad met figuren in Middeleeuwse kleding" which translates to "Study Sheet with Figures in Medieval Clothing." Editor: Immediately, I'm drawn to the figures—they have such a gentle melancholy, like actors caught between scenes, and those pen lines create this fabulous world out of almost nothing. It has the same appeal of a costume design...or, wait, almost a flash sheet of tattoos, but make it 1466! Curator: Precisely. It seems Klinkhamer was taken by the Late Middle Ages. Though produced in the 19th century, this drawing reveals a prevalent 19th-century interest in historical revivalism, in a somewhat fantasized past. Consider how history paintings played a role in constructing national identities at the time. Editor: Mmm, there’s a deliberate amateur quality. It is in a 'sketchbook', a collection of the artist's creative exercises that lets us see his mind in progress. A sort of proto-Pinterest board of medieval aesthetics. Is that past imagined, then? Are we idealizing their hair-do's and outfits or something? Curator: To some degree. The 'accurate' details become secondary to a romantic or nostalgic mood. These drawings may reference specific artworks or historical documents. Artists often made such studies, collecting visual ideas, so the past would feel vivid, or maybe feel usable to their own aesthetic goals. Editor: Absolutely. In some of the poses, or especially those figures at the bottom, it almost feels as though the artist could turn these guys into some sort of contemporary cartoon. With such detailed, confident linework. Curator: Yes! One way to think about Klinkhamer’s art here, then, is its relation to the institutions and visual cultures through which knowledge and appreciation for historical style circulated. He perhaps had the same experience, taking tours or printing collections he’d like. Editor: A love letter, almost, to the art of the Late Middle Ages filtered through a 19th century lens. I almost wish there were annotations scribbled all over. It adds a wonderful sense of layered creativity, that idea of historical and artistic reinterpretation. Curator: A playful spirit indeed—an artist engaging with historical motifs. What we see, then, in this drawing is a slice of that imagination—Klinkhamer in conversation with the distant past.