Droomachtig tafereel 1918

Curator: This intaglio print by Bernard Willem Wierink, created around 1918, is called "Droomachtig tafereel," or "Dreamlike Scene." It resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: Dreamlike indeed! It has a misty quality, like peering through a fogged window at a collection of bodies intertwined. The muted tones add to the ambiguity; is it menacing or simply melancholic? Curator: Wierink worked within a Symbolist framework, a style characterized by its exploration of subjective experience and its often esoteric subject matter. We see a cluster of figures nestled within what appears to be a womb-like shape, their forms somewhat undefined, blending together. This evokes themes common in fin-de-siècle art that considered ideas related to fertility, mortality, and spirituality. Editor: There's a pronounced circularity to the composition: figures within the encompassing form, then the coiled snake echoing this on the right. But what's the effect? Is it a visual metaphor for the cyclical nature of life, as the Symbolists so often presented? Or does it reinforce this sense of entrapment? The light is strange too – diffused everywhere, yet concentrated on the single standing figure. Curator: Perhaps it hints at the spiritualist fascination with the veil between worlds, the living and the departed. Wierink’s milieu was saturated with those anxieties, especially during and after the trauma of the First World War. I can imagine such work offering catharsis through visualisations of the body as psychic terrain. It has parallels to practices where the figure is a contested site during cultural shift. Editor: It is this element that creates the lasting, ambiguous appeal. The way Wierink manipulated the tonal scale, especially with his method using etching, lends it a ghostly feel, which amplifies the conceptual significance of rebirth and existence. Curator: Its resonance extends beyond personal interpretations, acting as a lens through which we understand social preoccupation. This work is a key reference in Symbolism that continues to speak volumes. Editor: Indeed. Beyond that, it really invites us to examine its artistry as a demonstration of tone, space, and composition.