IJsschoten en ijsbergen 1880

Editor: Here we have "Ice Floes and Icebergs," a pencil and colored pencil drawing made around 1880 by Louis Apol, on display here at the Rijksmuseum. It strikes me as so… unfinished, like a quick sketch, yet also intensely evocative of a vast, cold landscape. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Ah, yes, unfinished. Or perhaps, perfectly finished for its purpose. Apol wasn’t necessarily aiming for a polished final product, but rather capturing a fleeting moment, the essence of ice itself. These sketches – almost like musical notations – are all about the *feeling* of icy wilderness. The subtle blues of the pencil suggest, rather than dictate, the arctic atmosphere, don't you think? It’s like a memory shimmering on the page. Does it trigger a memory in you? Editor: I see what you mean. It's less about representing reality and more about capturing a mood. It makes me think of being out on a lake in winter, the silence, the grey light. Curator: Precisely! It’s impressionistic in its own way, even before Impressionism truly took hold in the Netherlands. Think of it as Apol wrestling with the sublime – trying to pin down something immense and unknowable with humble pencil strokes. Did he succeed, I wonder? Editor: I think he definitely captured the feeling of vastness. The empty space around the icebergs really helps. I would love to see it with actual color and texture sometime, if Apol made other iceberg pictures with colors. Curator: There is a similar picture, although it shows people too, in the distance. But there, in the end, does the suggestion have more power? Editor: This has opened up new perspective. It's intriguing how something so simple can convey so much atmosphere and open possibilities of interpretation. Curator: Art is about discovery – sometimes about discovering a part of ourselves reflected back to us.