Duiven c. 1935 - 1940

Curator: This sheet of studies, "Duiven" or "Pigeons," as we'd say in English, by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet, was created around 1935-1940. It’s ink on paper, a collection of the artist’s observations now housed here at the Rijksmuseum. What's your initial impression? Editor: It feels like capturing fleeting thoughts... sketches for an animation or studies for a larger piece perhaps? Pigeons in various postures, some looking quite abstract – simplified almost to calligraphic signs. Curator: Precisely. Cachet seems less concerned with ornithological accuracy and more with capturing the essence of "pigeon-ness," right? Each curve and line suggests movement, weight, and character. Birds often represent a spirit's flight between the earthly and celestial realms. Editor: Oh, interesting. Like the soul taking wing. The simplified shapes allow us to project a sort of symbolic weight onto the figures. They are also iconic representations of urban existence, so often overlooked and ubiquitous. It’s like elevating the mundane, turning them into something memorable. Curator: Exactly! He boils it down to line. It's the quintessence. I sense also the profound simplicity he discovers; they're minimal but complete, holding a feeling more than representing an exact thing. Does this simplicity evoke a particular feeling, something apart from our symbolic knowledge? Editor: Melancholy, maybe? A sense of delicate quiet. Pigeons can symbolize peace but these feel fragile, sketched as they are, susceptible to disappearing just as quickly as they appeared on the page. There's a vulnerable quality I can't quite shake. Curator: Yes, that fleeting, almost wistful nature… they are there and gone. A humble and sensitive witness is Cachet; maybe to his inner state at a difficult moment in Europe. Editor: Looking closely again, I notice the varying weights of the lines, they pulse as though possessing their breath, light as air and bearing somber significance too, perhaps? Curator: You nailed it. Ultimately, these "Duiven" capture the ephemeral beauty in the everyday, transforming something so common into a meditation on form, symbolism, and fleeting emotion. It's a study of seeing itself, through pigeons. Editor: A deceptively simple piece that hides layers of complexity, then. Another gem unveiled. Thank you for helping me see these quiet yet significant contours.