Koffer en een man met een jas over zijn arm Possibly 1870 - 1875

Curator: This quirky sketch is entitled "Koffer en een man met een jas over zijn arm," or "Suitcase and a man with a coat over his arm." It’s a pencil drawing on paper by Cornelis Springer, made sometime between 1870 and 1875. You can find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The first thing that strikes me is its fleeting quality. The lines are so light and quickly rendered. The man almost seems to fade into the background. Curator: Right. You can see it's an exercise in capturing form with minimal means, probably from a sketchbook. The weight of his profession is revealed, perhaps the artist was struck by the materials carried for survival, travel, perhaps even commerce. Look at how he’s chosen to render the suitcase as a separate object from the man’s person, isolated at the bottom of the drawing as its own entity, as though both the man and his belongings are distinct entities traveling this earth. Editor: I'm interested in how the man is carrying his coat. The gesture suggests movement but also a burden. The suitcase mirrors the same message. A potential for journey and aspiration? What could he be carrying, and where might the symbolic journey take the subject and its creator? Curator: Perhaps Springer was considering his own social position. He, too, was constructing images for a market, traveling to get commissions, building his brand through materiality. You see how the means of production of commercial work – sketchbook, pencil, and paper – were so intimate and tactile to Springer himself? How this labor informs the symbolic value that would inevitably define a cultural elite? Editor: True, and the slightly detached gaze of the figure certainly gives off the sense that we're observing an individual caught in a moment of private introspection. I do think the suitcase can also mean being bogged down by possessions, unable to move forward as freely as one may desire. Curator: An interesting point. And that coat draped over the arm, almost casually...It complicates the overall message. He seems less burdened when looking at it as such. Editor: The quick sketch and the subtle details invite a kind of quiet reflection that stays with you after viewing it, a small piece of life observed. Curator: It's like a raw insight into the process of transforming the work and movement required of being an artist to something grand, if only for a second.