Stadsgezicht met een paard-en-wagen c. 1887 - 1897

Curator: Here we have "Cityscape with a Horse-drawn Carriage," a drawing by Willem Witsen, likely made between 1887 and 1897. It's currently housed in the Rijksmuseum. Editor: The immediate impression is one of subdued energy. There's movement, but it’s caught in this misty, almost ghostly way. It feels incomplete, as if a memory is being captured. Curator: Indeed. It is a landscape executed using pencil and pen, reflective of the Impressionist movement’s fleeting impressions, a technique adopted for social critique as much as aesthetic reasons. The piece offers insight into the commodification of labor evident during that era. The blurred figures emphasize their positions within society: laborers, passersby—almost anonymous. Editor: I am struck by Witsen's deliberate choices with materials. Pencil and pen provide for a swift, reproductive form. This suggests that he might not have labored for weeks and weeks for patrons. How do these factors relate to his subjects? Does the material determine the speed and cost to market? Curator: Precisely! The accessibility of pencil and the rapid, sketch-like style allowed Witsen to capture scenes of everyday urban life efficiently. Moreover, there is commentary here. By highlighting workers in the cityscape, and focusing his means to achieve it, Witsen calls attention to their otherwise ignored contributions to modern life in a growing metropolis. Editor: I noticed, too, the absence of rich detail around faces and material goods on display. It avoids fetishizing personal items in service of its wider, citywide narrative, Curator: Absolutely, and within this framing is the narrative surrounding access and privilege. Who owned these materials at the time, who had the opportunity to render them as a commodity? Editor: It makes you question how labor conditions and capitalist gains impact artwork then, now, and beyond. A thought-provoking perspective of how these drawings mirror power structures then. Curator: Agreed. This small drawing opens a broad conversation.