Boerenhuis c. 1882 - 1884

Curator: This is Willem Witsen’s “Boerenhuis,” made somewhere between 1882 and 1884. You can find this delicate sketch residing in the Rijksmuseum’s collection. Editor: A simple dwelling. What strikes me immediately is its quietude, almost stark simplicity, but that might also be because of the monochromatic palette of course. It feels like a forgotten corner, somehow intimate. Curator: I think it perfectly encapsulates the artist’s own privileged position looking at the countryside, and by extension, a whole peasant class. This wasn't his world. The direct translation of the title means something akin to farmhouse; how very anonymous. What does this anonymity evoke? Editor: There's a subtle voyeurism, isn't there? Witsen’s detachment somehow enhances the farmhouse's vulnerability, almost making it a specimen for observation rather than lived space. You see this stark contrast with say, Van Gogh, who imbued his works with the empathetic embrace. Curator: Precisely. But let’s remember the socio-political milieu; late 19th-century Dutch art was deeply entrenched in portraying rural life— but for whom? And who really had access to these paintings of peasant life? Did this accessibility lead to empathy, or othering? I feel there is definitely a performative act happening within Dutch art during this period. Editor: Absolutely, the act of looking always implicates power, I think. Witsen isn't necessarily glorifying rural labor like Millet did, and he's not really overtly commenting either... the image becomes more about this sort of removed contemplation. But in the end I like the humbleness that Witsen communicates with this sketch. Curator: So well put. His humbleness indeed becomes the piece's intriguing tension— a certain delicate aloofness dances with the universal need for 'home' offering a layered, almost melancholic tableau for us. Editor: And with that, the humble farmhouse, drawn with gentle precision, speaks volumes doesn’t it? Curator: Indeed it does; it reminds us that even sketches can invite the kind of quiet contemplation usually reserved for the grandest of masterpieces.