Staverse poortje te Enkhuizen 1870 - 1931

Curator: I am drawn to the wistful mood this pencil sketch evokes. The architectural subject is a fortified gate, with the heavy, weathered brick made even more substantial by shadow and light. Editor: Indeed, it’s a poignant piece by Willem Bastiaan Tholen, probably executed between 1870 and 1931. The work is titled, "Staverse poortje te Enkhuizen," and this gem is currently held at the Rijksmuseum. There’s something so immediate and tangible about works on paper, isn't there? Curator: Absolutely! And that's what grabs me – that very immediacy. It has a wonderfully melancholic aura— the lone figure passing through, the blank sky… Makes me wonder what's on the other side of that gate. Editor: Historically, city gates represented transition points, literally defining the civic limits. Enkhuizen itself was an important port. So you're absolutely right to key into this symbolism of moving through spaces. Curator: The sketch quality, the open spaces of untouched paper—it reads almost like a dream, as if conjured rather than observed, blurring objective reality and deeply personal imagination. It makes you realize that this is also how time moves through and alters cities, brick by brick and memory by memory. Editor: Precisely! The seemingly effortless quality, which, I imagine, resulted from so much careful study, emphasizes the everyday. Consider the gate’s public role, its continuous welcoming of so many citizens. The single figure passing through is anonymous, emphasizing continuity of the locale. Curator: It does beg the question, what is permanence, if not repeated visitation? I also find it moving how an apparently objective urban scene manages to distill so many of the deepest human dramas—comings and goings, inside and outside, security and danger. Editor: Exactly— it's both deeply personal, a quick impression dashed off, but also monumental, echoing grand themes of state power and civic life. And it leaves us, I think, pondering both what we seek in art, and what we hope for in public spaces. Curator: A marvelous reminder that seeing and feeling aren't separate acts but part of one great flow through life. Editor: Nicely put— perhaps that’s what all good gates offer: passages between experiences.