Buyten de Benscoper Poort te Uferflyn 1750

Curator: This is Paulus van Liender’s “Buyten de Benscoper Poort te Uferflyn,” a cityscape he rendered around 1750. Van Liender worked primarily with ink in drawings, often finding his subjects within the Dutch landscape tradition of the era. Editor: It has this gentle quiet to it. Like a Sunday afternoon sort of feeling. Everything seems suspended in a lovely amber light even though there are no vibrant colours. It gives the work such a calm disposition. Curator: Yes, he really captures that Golden Age stillness! Notice the way the lines vary. There's a very even distribution of the visual weight across the plane of the image, though the dark detailing on the right side offers something of an anchor for your eye. How do you read this spatial distribution of form? Editor: I’d say there's an amazing amount of activity within the composition. It feels deceptively simple. The placement of the windmill against that vast, brushed sky contrasts sharply with the meticulously drawn architectural details to give it dynamism. Even the clouds mirror the solidity of the buildings down below. But there is so much happening here that isn’t explicit. So much gentle shadow, too. Curator: And shadow implies light— the drawing is so very balanced. A narrative balance too! We have these quiet domestic scenes on both banks of the river and everything appears caught in a web of mutual relationships. I imagine Liender sought out this specific viewpoint very carefully. It feels incredibly intimate, the perfect blend of familiar scenes and subtle depth. Editor: Right, and that careful selection almost hides what I think the drawing is ultimately about—an examination of how we perceive space and the world around us. The scene invites one to wander. It captures a precise moment of human activity in the larger flow of nature, implying narratives we have to bring ourselves. Curator: True, van Liender’s drawing leaves a space for our thoughts to breathe, something hopeful and serene about it. Editor: I agree—I'm going to go wander through my day now! Thanks for the tour!