Man met een spade over zijn schouder 1802 - 1851

Editor: So, here we have "Man met een spade over zijn schouder" by Daniël (I) Veelwaard, sometime between 1802 and 1851. It seems to be some kind of print or oil painting, and right away I get this sense of almost theatrical... dignity from a simple laborer. It’s striking. What jumps out at you? Curator: It’s like a play, isn’t it? He poses rather than lives; is he a player, or a landscape element? This is one of the eternal paradoxes: Is he more than the landscape itself? Look at how confidently he carries his tool. I think this belongs to an era that valued rural life. Editor: He definitely exudes a certain confidence. The way he's standing, hand on his hip... And the hat! I’m used to laborers being represented a bit more… grimly, I guess. Curator: Yes, a worker wearing a hat: How contradictory! You expect mud and grit. Maybe it's the dawning of a romantic view – work becomes something almost to be admired. Are we glorifying hard labor here? Or appreciating the raw dignity that’s there to begin with? Editor: That's such a good question. Maybe a little bit of both? This image definitely has a romantic quality about it, now that you mention it, showing rural life and all. So, would it be fair to call this more a ‘genre-painting’, if that is right? Curator: Genre painting and something much deeper. Look at the quiet elegance that the artist imbued on the landscape and the figure. I feel this peace from another era! Editor: I do, too. And it makes you think, doesn’t it, about how we idealize or even fail to see certain lives even now.