Tireen en Doris 1778 - 1785

Curator: Here we have "Tireen en Doris", an engraving made by Noach van der Meer the Younger between 1778 and 1785, now residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It feels almost staged, doesn't it? Like a woodland tableau vivant, or an intimate scene plucked from a sentimental novel. I feel the air of hushed secrets. Curator: You’re right to pick up on that sense of drama! The engraving employs a really interesting interplay between the formal garden aesthetic—very much in vogue at the time—and the burgeoning taste for Romanticism’s celebration of nature’s wilder aspects. Notice how the precise lines of their clothing contrast with the chaotic tangle of branches and foliage? Editor: Precisely. Look at her posture! So languid. Her whole pose practically drips with melodramatic angst, whilst he has an almost theatrical confidence that reads on his every movement. It looks a little like she might faint. What on earth could he be gesturing at so dramatically? Curator: Knowing van der Meer’s context, he was often engaging with the culture of printed ephemera. This was designed to be reproduced, disseminated, and perhaps even colored by hand at home. In that way, you can understand it in terms of contemporary popular consumption. Editor: An 18th-century meme, almost! It’s a beautiful thought. Curator: Precisely! It allows us to question art historical hierarchies between unique and reproduced art and even the presumed role of domestic labour. What are the material conditions that enabled the social and cultural function this kind of art had at the time? Editor: Mmm, there's a quiet melancholy in this print; something of fleeting beauty caught in a web of delicate lines. It has really been a delight seeing it today with a new focus, bringing its potential value in art practices. Curator: Indeed, this conversation has served as a testament to the engraving’s capacity to hold both immediate beauty and lingering historical questions. Thank you!