Heuvellandschap 1848 - 1888

Curator: This graphite drawing is titled "Heuvellandschap," or "Hill Landscape," by Anton Mauve. It's held here at the Rijksmuseum, and was created sometime between 1848 and 1888. What are your initial impressions? Editor: Austere. Spare. It feels like a landscape seen through a bleary eye, maybe at dawn, or in a moment of grief. There's a rawness to it; it is just graphite on paper and invites you into that stark simplicity. Curator: Indeed. We can situate Mauve's landscapes within a 19th-century context where the Romantic idealization of nature intersects with emerging Realist tendencies. How do you see those tension playing out here? Editor: I think what you call "Realist tendencies" brings it closer to the Romantic idealization in that you strip away the overt prettiness; nature is still the object, only it’s more akin to nature when you are actually experiencing nature in your daily life. It's a reminder that beauty exists even in the mundane. Curator: That is perceptive. This was a time of growing industrialization, and we could certainly understand landscape art, with its various styles, as responding to anxieties surrounding urbanization. Editor: Anxieties, absolutely. Though, maybe on another level, there's solace here too. Looking at the landscape presented as unembellished provides comfort from the changing environment that can exist, and in this drawing did exist outside of the paper it's drawn on. Curator: I find your reading fascinating. So often we emphasize loss in relation to this era of modernization, but you’re identifying a certain form of resilience? Editor: I suppose I am. When everything is going so fast it’s easy to only see one side. Maybe what I see here isn’t intentional but that’s ok too, it makes me consider that. Curator: Well, whether intentional or not, your interpretation is valuable. It highlights the capacity for art to offer more than one type of reflection on the cultural conditions in which it emerges. Editor: Right? A lot is going on between some scribbles. Curator: Precisely. Thank you for that insightful read!