Twee mannen die hout zagen in een weiland, kippen en een kleine piano 1885 - 1931

This is a sketch by Willem Bastiaan Tholen depicting two men sawing wood in a field, complete with chickens and a small piano. The most striking image is the two men sawing wood, an ancient act laden with symbolic weight. The act of sawing itself, of dividing and shaping, echoes through time. Consider the mythological representation of the Fates. In the Greek mythology, the Fates are commonly depicted as weaving the thread of life, but the sawing motion may bring to mind the severing of this thread, a symbolic ending. The presence of a piano in such a rustic setting brings to mind the duality between the raw labor and the cultured refinements of life. It touches upon the psychological interplay between man's physical engagement with the earth and his striving for higher, aesthetic expression. The sawing of wood may evoke the crude, primal energy of mankind, while the piano symbolizes the spiritual aspirations. These symbols engage with a subconscious understanding of mortality and the cyclical nature of existence.