Muur met arcaden c. 1871 - 1878

Curator: Maria Vos sketched "Muur met arcaden," or "Wall with Arcades," using pencil and colored pencil, sometime between 1871 and 1878. It resides here in the Rijksmuseum. What are your first impressions? Editor: Ghostly. It reminds me of Piranesi’s etchings of architectural ruins but stripped down to the barest essentials. A skeleton of an imagined place. Curator: That stark quality seems tied to realism. The arches aren’t grand or triumphant; rather, they seem everyday and perhaps slightly crumbling. The wall isn't just stone; it’s history. What do walls mean to us, historically, psychologically? Protection, certainly. Exclusion, sometimes. They embody boundaries, visible and invisible. Editor: True. But even beyond the overt symbolism of walls, I'm struck by how she coaxes such quiet drama from such simple lines. There's something melancholic about it, a quietude that pulls me in. Perhaps I’m drawn to it because the incomplete lines almost beckon me to fill them in. Like the half-formed memories, aren’t they? Curator: Consider the period – the late 19th century. The societal emphasis on the visible, tangible world also highlighted the ephemeral. Sketches like these provided a more intimate engagement with reality than larger, finished pieces. A raw record, if you will. Editor: Absolutely. Like catching a glimpse of the artist’s thought process. You see that and realize art doesn’t spring forth fully formed—but as something carefully extracted. Curator: There's a universality in that too. These walls exist, changed, and were reclaimed across time, holding our narratives within them. In its pared-down quality, the sketch makes that longevity and that shared space even more apparent. Editor: Right, the wall exists, even if everything around it shifts and blurs. A stark reminder of impermanence, beautifully rendered. Curator: Precisely. Thank you for providing a lens to think about the lasting power that even unfinished stories have.