Winter Landscape with Skaters and Horse-Drawn Sledges on the Ice, a Village Below 1793 - 1814

Curator: Look at this lovely, seemingly simple piece, Winter Landscape with Skaters and Horse-Drawn Sledges on the Ice, a Village Below, made with pen and ink with graphite on paper sometime between 1793 and 1814. It’s currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Editor: The whole scene feels suspended, almost monochrome, save for the pale sky. You immediately sense the quiet labor inherent to that winter scene depicted and its implied social relations. Curator: I think that’s an astute observation. If you examine the composition more formally, notice the horizon line is very high, placing almost all the pictorial weight on the activities on the ice. The subtle gradations of tone create a vast expanse. Editor: Yes, but the social dynamic within this manufactured pastoral vision intrigues me most. Think about the work to construct the skates, sledges, the rearing and care of the horses--all the raw materials transformed to enable this leisured scene. Curator: The labor inherent to even creating the work—the precise control with pen and ink! Notice how Vermeulen uses line to define form, and stippling and hatching to create the illusion of depth and shadow. Editor: Of course, the choice to depict a "leisurely" skate, elides the intense labor such images necessarily ignore and misrepresent in its time and context. Curator: Perhaps, but look closely. The work does not romanticize but documents—there’s a dispassionate eye. The details—clothing, architecture—offer a sense of realism, almost proto-photography in its precise capture. Editor: That 'realism' is so reliant on historical conditions; its very claim on our understanding is built upon that labor, making the picture possible and allowing this social stratum the 'luxury' to be memorialized skating. Curator: A valid point, certainly providing a nuanced way of viewing Vermeulen's composition. Editor: It allows for consideration beyond surface appearances to delve into complex systems of making and societal reflection.