Ontwerp voor een maandkalender c. 1895 - 1900

Editor: This is "Ontwerp voor een maandkalender," a design for a monthly calendar by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, made around 1895-1900. It looks like it’s rendered in pencil and pen, and it feels like we're glimpsing into the artist’s sketchbook. It's very raw and preliminary, with several ideas jotted down on the page. What stands out to you in this piece? Curator: What immediately draws my eye is the fragmented structure. Each section seems to suggest a different approach to representing time. We see geometric grids alongside more organic, almost floral designs, all vying for attention. Time isn’t just linear; it’s cyclical, and, even more so, deeply personal. How might the integration of what looks like floral ornamentation relate to notions of time? Editor: Well, maybe the floral elements represent the passing seasons? The natural cycle of growth, death, and rebirth marking the progression of the year? Curator: Precisely. The calendar is transformed from a mere organizational tool into an emblem of nature's rhythm. Art Nouveau was about injecting life, literally, into functional objects, and even a calendar is not free of embedded meaning, whether intended or unintended by the artist. Editor: It's interesting how something as simple as a calendar design can reflect broader cultural attitudes about time and nature. Are there other details that reveal something more profound? Curator: Consider how the unfinished quality itself contributes. These aren't final decisions, they’re experiments, suggestions, dreams perhaps. This tells us time, and our approach to marking its passing, remains fluid, open to interpretation. Our attempts to categorize and control something as uncontrollable as time is an important concept. Do you agree? Editor: Definitely. It reminds me that even in our modern, hyper-scheduled lives, we’re still influenced by these deeper, more ancient symbols of time. It's really fascinating. Curator: Indeed. It makes you think about your own relationship with time. Seeing how the symbolic depiction of such things evolve.