Inscheping 1822 - 1880

Curator: Well, my first thought: a sort of bittersweet departure. Editor: It really is. We're looking at "Inscheping" by Reinier Craeyvanger, created sometime between 1822 and 1880. It’s currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. A genre painting using engraving and print medium showing a small boat, with several figures embarking. The grey tones of the engraving enhance this feeling. What draws me in immediately is the collection of hands. Curator: Hands reaching out, a chain of connection… yes. The symbolism is really interesting. It almost looks like they are assisting a family on a final departure into the afterlife. The people, are they going to fish, trade or perhaps immigrating? You see a whole life in a tiny boat. Editor: True! Consider the hands, always potent symbols. Linked, supporting, releasing. These images were so important when literacy was not universal. People would "read" images, internalizing the symbols in ways we don’t fully appreciate today. It makes me wonder about our capacity to internalize similar meanings from pictures. It captures such a moment so quietly and profoundly. What do you see reflected in the etching's medium itself? Does that impact how you understand its imagery? Curator: Well, the grey tones make it a melancholic but also nostalgic atmosphere. What is left unsaid makes us dream, perhaps this connects even today with the viewer and offers food for thought. Like when someone leaves from your own circle of relations. Also note the romanticism and search of emotions in such a simple genre painting. How about you, what will stick with you? Editor: Definitely that quiet power of symbolic imagery. And the realization of how deeply connected humans are by universal experiences, regardless of the epoch. The cultural weight an image like this one carried, connecting it to today’s anxieties. Curator: Exactly. Even the style, the etching feels appropriate here as though something fades with time, a lost connection or person is still present in the minds of the relatives.