Ontwerp voor een toneelzaal c. 1903 - 1904

Curator: Here we have "Ontwerp voor een toneelzaal," or "Design for a Theater Hall," created circa 1903-1904 by Carel Adolph Lion Cachet. It's a preliminary sketch rendered in pencil and ink on paper. Editor: My first thought? This feels like a half-remembered dream of a theater. So light and airy, almost fading away... It is as though one are designing the stage with your mind. Curator: Exactly! You’ve keyed into the core of this work; it's not about precision but rather exploring architectural forms. Cachet was clearly influenced by Art Nouveau. Notice the rhythmic repetition of arched forms and delicate lines. The building almost feels like a living, breathing organism, it definitely plays in line with Art Nouveau themes. Editor: Yes, I'm picking up what you are laying down! Arches within arches – echoes repeating each other in the building design itself. And that loose lettering scrawled across the spaces "Toneel," "Buffet"… These details offer a delightful contrast with the otherwise strict neoclassical elements. There is something there I just cannot pick. Curator: Cachet’s use of handwriting isn't merely labeling; it integrates text into the overall composition, giving a personal touch to the structured elements and hinting toward the building function. Its worth taking into account this is just a design not a finished work. You are seeing an artist initial though process. The fact that its simple pen and ink over paper I feel only amplify this point. Editor: Thinking of it more from that context, and maybe knowing this building may never truly exist as seen by this design... it really feels fragile and temporal in such. The perspective suggests that building something that would not exists give something profound to think about.. It seems now less dream and something closer to utopia or hopeful futurism. Curator: I'd say so. In all of its design that didn't materialize. Lion Cachet here created for the viewer an exercise in architectural possibility—a world we glimpse briefly, sketched in delicate strokes. Its exciting to know what someone imagines even when its not fully fleshed out. Editor: A whispered promise of grandeur and human space captured in a preliminary moment. Certainly, one worth further thoughts and inspiration.