Ontwerp voor bord van het model ‘Square’ met twee konijnen c. 1875 - 1880

Curator: It strikes me as almost delicately balanced between intention and improvisation. Editor: I agree. We're looking at "Design for a plate of the model ‘Square’ with two rabbits," a watercolor drawing by Albert-Louis Dammouse, dating from around 1875-1880. It feels provisional. Curator: Rabbits, especially paired, have carried a variety of connotations across cultures. Fertility, certainly, but also vulnerability, a sort of gentle wildness. They resonate with images of the pastoral, but this drawing lacks that innocence because you can almost sense how the artist has captured the subject with just a hint of menace as well as with love of nature.. Editor: I'm intrigued by the interplay between the sketched border and the more fully realized rabbits in the centre. The organic shapes of leaves, in comparison, feel deliberately studied in their contrast of light and shadow in verdant shades. There’s tension—a conversation between the schematic and the pictorial, the decorative and the representational. Curator: Right! The sketch of oak and possibly other native French plants hints at something foundational. Those plants carry generational memories. While rabbits have appeared at least since antiquity on many of Europe’s plates, Dammouse re-inserts them into an explicit local visual discourse, almost to say that he cares about that design aspect.. Editor: Note how the artist used minimal strokes in depicting the structure behind the bunnies and used few dark shadows. It pulls the eye straight into what seems more real because it has weight by comparison to those less bold background forms behind our adorable bunny friends. It flattens, focuses, and makes this little picture sing out from any background when its placed on ceramic because you immediately find some sense-perception anchoring! Curator: So, the plate becomes not just functional or decorative, but a site for reflecting on our relationship with the natural world and our own cultural heritage and values through the natural animal state… I had never conceived its power! Editor: It shows the artist played and pushed beyond representation itself. In the interplay between medium, mark, and meaning, we see how forms shape our engagement, a constant re-evaluating act with what and why they matter..