Reisverslag c. 1880 - 1887

Curator: Here at the Rijksmuseum, we have Louis Apol’s “Reisverslag,” or “Travel Report,” a drawing rendered in ink on paper, dating from approximately 1880 to 1887. Editor: My first impression is how intimate it feels. The spidery, cursive writing gives it an immediacy, like a captured moment in a private journal. Curator: Precisely! Apol wasn’t just a painter of grand Arctic landscapes; he also documented his personal observations. What you're seeing is essentially a page from one of his sketchbooks. The materials, the paper, the ink, all speak to the practical, portable nature of artistic creation in the field. Editor: Tell me more about the construction. I’m looking at the flow of the lines themselves. How he used them to structure the text. Look at the different weight he gives each stroke; how it all sits on the page, organized between ruled lines in what seems like some unknown language. Curator: We have yet to translate it, but what stands out to me is that even within the tradition of landscape art, you have Apol’s investment in narrative art to see how that merges into his own travel accounts and experience of the landscapes. The materiality of these sketches becomes incredibly important, being an artist’s own lived experience to then transform this material reality into an artistic experience later on. Editor: I am also curious how his materials are important when constructing his image. As this sketchbook can fit inside one’s pocket. Or as Apol would have used a small vial of ink with this nib, that its mark making has become of outmost importance for us to view such delicate details and lines to what then translates into an artistic whole for his sketch work. Curator: It gives us a closer understanding to who Apol was, seeing his investment into the travel aspects itself instead of the sole artistic values we often assign to this. Editor: Absolutely, a raw document of labor, providing fascinating insights into Apol's work process. Thank you.