Merrymaking at a Wayside Inn 1811 - 1816

Curator: This is John Lewis Krimmel's "Merrymaking at a Wayside Inn," created between 1811 and 1816. You can find it at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: It feels almost stagey, doesn’t it? Everyone poised in their finery like a scene from a traveling play, caught in the liminal space of a coaching stop. The color washes create this sense of spontaneity too, while everything also feels deliberately placed. Curator: I find it endlessly charming – this peek into a bygone era of leisurely travel. Krimmel captured the spirit of the time. Think of the clothing! All those layers—the craftmanship, even. The stitching… someone’s labor went into every single thread. Editor: Precisely. And look at the violinist in the doorway. Note how the narrative relegates music-making, the work itself, to the periphery, literally to the doorway; the artfulness disappears behind the guise of merriment. Even though it enables the leisure on display! Who gets to labor? And who has the freedom to while away the time at an Inn, drinking, dancing, making merry... those distinctions matter! Curator: Ah, yes, the fiddler. I always saw it as Krimmel inviting us to focus our attention there... Editor: Well, what better subject than labor itself? Krimmel had a real appreciation of craftsmanship! Curator: In some ways. Yet he elevates a fiddler—an artist himself, no?—above sheer function. Krimmel wasn't making an argument here. Editor: But the very depiction makes the point! These are the wheels on which society runs. Take a look at those travelers again, notice those textiles and embellishments... the artist does. Curator: You have certainly made me think differently. I see the social dynamics so much more vividly now. Editor: Ultimately, these objects are also a story. Not just art for art's sake, but social record and legacy as well. A beautiful dance between intent and material truth.