Ingang van Kasteel Duivenvoorde 1875 - 1876

Curator: Maria Vos created this little gem around 1875, a sketch titled "Ingang van Kasteel Duivenvoorde"—Entrance to Duivenvoorde Castle. It's an ink drawing on paper, housed right here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It gives me this instant feeling of… coziness? Despite the grandeur you expect from a castle, this feels incredibly intimate, like a private peek into someone's sketchbook. Curator: That’s precisely the charm, isn't it? The beauty of sketchbook work. What really strikes me is the use of line. Look how the density shifts, creating depth without shading in the traditional sense. There’s almost a structuralist argument here about contrasting line weights as creating different semantic meanings—the architecture emerging as figure from ground through graphic differentiation. Editor: Okay, you’ve officially zoomed in with the structuralist lens. I’m seeing less linguistic oppositions and more of a free-flowing expression of space. The slightly tilted perspective and the scribbled foliage have a lovely, slightly off-kilter romanticism. It’s like Vos captured a moment, not a monument. Curator: I'd agree. The quick, decisive marks are wonderful, especially where the ink captures the texture of stone against the softness of leaves. Notice how she frames the heavy archway; it acts as this visual threshold, and from a romantic standpoint, you know, symbolizes the passage from the mundane to something extraordinary. Editor: Oh, absolutely. And there's that inscription...almost faded now. Do we know what that indicates? Curator: Some cryptic notations; a location marker? A poetic musing? Possibly directions... who knows. And it is that lack of definiteness, in my humble opinion, that beckons one deeper into the sketch’s atmosphere. It really underscores its value as an artefact – a window onto the lived world. It makes you yearn to rifle through Maria's portfolio to seek other gems. Editor: Yes, its raw intimacy reminds me that the best art sometimes captures something ephemeral, a passing fancy, a stolen moment of beauty. This feels honest, doesn’t it? I wonder what other treasures that sketchbook contains? Curator: Well, now, isn’t that the question? Let this lovely sketch lead your quest to discovering its siblings and secrets!