Boerderij met kippen en geiten 1768 - 1772

Curator: This is Nicolas Pérignon’s “Farm with Chickens and Goats,” a print created using etching techniques sometime between 1768 and 1772. Editor: My initial impression is one of rustic simplicity—the density of the etched lines gives it a sort of worn texture, like an old storybook illustration. Curator: Indeed. The image depicts a genre scene of farm life, reflecting the rising popularity of portraying everyday people and their environments in art, during the Enlightenment when notions of social hierarchy were in question. These sorts of scenes democratized the art market by focusing on the every-person experience. Editor: I notice how Pérignon uses light and shadow. The bright clouds above seem to echo the clusters of animals, reflecting some pastoral ideal. How do you interpret the thatched roof and the postures of the livestock? Curator: Well, one cannot overlook that Pérignon produced this scene for a specific consumer demographic and a developing art market. This idealized farm could represent complex intersections of agrarian labor and societal aspirations. Consider the social implications of showing chickens and goats, rather than say, cows. What kind of message does that send to an aspiring land owner? Editor: That's a great point; the symbolism of the livestock certainly bears further examination when viewed through a social and political lens. Beyond any specific narrative, though, I see a deeper symbolic resonance—a subtle acknowledgment of the enduring cycle of rural existence. The rendering almost feels dreamlike, a constructed idea of natural beauty as well as of rural tranquility. Curator: Perhaps we can even say it's part of a collective cultural memory, reimagined for a specific moment in time! I now see this artwork as not merely representing farm life, but subtly reinforcing the era’s changing social narratives and evolving values of its consumer demographic. Editor: Looking closely at how nature's rhythms have always influenced the human psyche helps broaden our perspective as we look deeper.