Stilleven met dode vogel en pompoen c. 1855

Curator: Good morning, I’d like to draw your attention to an arresting image produced circa 1855 by Eduard Isaac Asser, titled "Stilleven met dode vogel en pompoen," or Still Life with Dead Bird and Pumpkin. It’s a photograph currently held here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: That’s…bleakly beautiful. It has this ghostly, surreal quality, almost dreamlike, but simultaneously stark. The bird especially, looks like a white bloom against all that darkness. Curator: Yes, that’s a key aspect of this piece. As a photograph in the Realist style, it leans into the depiction of everyday life without embellishment, yet there’s something more at play, isn’t there? Editor: Definitely. You’ve got the obvious, um, the expired bird there. But then you’ve got the pumpkin—symbol of harvest and abundance—looming over it all. It's got 'memento mori' written all over it. All this potential with inescapable decay…it’s quite poetic, and, sure, pretty gloomy, yeah? Curator: Exactly. 'Momento mori' – remember you must die. Still life paintings have traditionally explored that theme of transience. Asser’s clever innovation comes in the combination of it with a very modern and nascent photographic process at that time. Think about the impact: using new technology to contemplate age-old questions. Editor: I get the feeling he chose photography deliberately to underscore the 'realness' of mortality, of these objects' literal existence in the world. With the stark contrast too...is it just me, or is there a subtle political undertone too, though? Like, abundance for some but not for others, and then death is what equalizes us. Curator: That's an interesting point of view! It reminds me about the symbolism around certain produce, how even something like a pumpkin may have a relationship to class structure depending on culture and setting. The beauty of visual symbolism is its ability to trigger so many varying viewpoints. Editor: I like to think about how someone, way back then, carefully arranged this tableau and took such a strikingly crisp image. All of that, frozen. But thinking about all that time gives the objects even greater resonance now. It adds to that melancholic note. Curator: It certainly does give you pause. Editor: Yeah. The composition just leaves you with this strange mix of awe and quiet disquiet, even in something this simple and raw.