Paarden 1840 - 1880

Curator: Look at the swiftness and grace captured in "Paarden," a drawing by Johannes Tavenraat, estimated to have been created between 1840 and 1880. It's rendered in ink. My first impression is of fleeting movement. There's a sketch-like quality. Editor: A quick rendering; a glimpse of power barely contained on the page. Do these horses signify something about the artist's era? Perhaps a romantic idealization of nature and its taming by humans during a period of rapid industrial change? I feel like this sketch is speaking to that. Curator: Horses carry considerable symbolic weight. Their representation throughout history mirrors shifting societal dynamics. As working animals, and later emblems of wealth and war. Here the lines are very clean and clear in this ink drawing Editor: You are right to invoke this loaded symbolic field, the symbolic and literal horsepower, as it were, the role of these creatures, even just as figments of movement. Curator: Consider the context, though: Dutch art and culture of this time was concerned about questions of labor, trade, even leisure. These animals might be considered through the lens of colonial economies as well, where labor and access were central. The very fact that it's a drawing is a commentary as well. A study for something? It allows the raw nature of animals to exist free of political contentions. Editor: Perhaps so. To think of the animal in its more simple truth. These sketches do convey something elemental. Tavenraat has focused on essence here rather than specific attributes, which makes their power—their potential—universal. I find myself strangely moved by their bare simplicity, as if they contain the collective memory of the species itself. Curator: It’s an insight into Tavenraat’s artistic process, a fragment capturing the spirit of the animal. What do you think? Editor: Indeed, and perhaps even our own primal connection to such powerful, ancient creatures.