Abklatsch van de tekening op schutblad B 1882 - 1923

Curator: This delicate drawing is titled "Abklatsch van de tekening op schutblad B," made sometime between 1882 and 1923 by Willem Witsen. It's rendered in graphite on paper, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Well, my first thought is that it looks almost ghostly. The lines are so faint, it's like a memory barely sketched onto the page. There's something ethereal about it. Is it a landscape, perhaps? Curator: Indeed. Witsen was part of the Dutch Impressionist movement, so it aligns with his tendency to capture fleeting impressions of the landscape. One could say the scene, very subtly implied here, borders the Haarlemmermeer polder near his estate outside Amsterdam. Editor: It's curious, though, isn't it? To capture the polder with such subtlety. It feels almost more about absence than presence, especially since its title roughly translates to "Blot from the drawing on endpaper B". You can really sense that intimacy by understanding that it comes from a sketchbook. Curator: Precisely! The image becomes a byproduct, secondary. That resonates with me because, in the 19th century, artistic training shifted towards capturing reality. However, with rapid urbanization and its impact on rural lifestyles, images of nature assumed a vital, public role. So this drawing has this really curious tension. Editor: I see your point. Maybe that's why it feels so…fragile. There is also this push and pull, a tension about a kind of home but maybe something you can’t grab a hold of either, a sort of fugitive longing for a landscape on the verge of disappearing from memory as much as geography. Curator: Well said. And it’s particularly evocative considering Witsen came from an elite family involved in land reclamation, part of the economic structure radically changing the very landscape he’s depicting. Editor: Absolutely. In a way, he depicts this ambivalence. Curator: It gives it another layer of poignancy, this awareness and subtle documentation. A whisper of a landscape changing drastically, documented on what almost seems like a whim, something fleeting. Editor: A haunting little glimpse into a world transforming. It certainly sticks with you long after you've looked at it.