Landschap met bomengroep 1752 - 1819

Curator: Editor: This is "Landschap met bomengroep," or "Landscape with Trees," by Jurriaan Andriessen, made sometime between 1752 and 1819. It's a drawing using ink, and what strikes me immediately is the busyness, the incredible detail worked into these trees. What do you see in this piece? Curator: I'm immediately drawn to the materiality of the piece. Look at the ways in which Andriessen exploits the potential of ink. He builds up textures, suggests form, with just the density of the mark-making. The Romanticism label directs us to look for emotional, almost sublime content, but I also want to consider the paper, the quality of the ink, the labor involved in rendering all of this. What sort of person had the training and access to make this? Editor: That's a really interesting perspective. I was so caught up in the picturesque landscape, I didn't really consider the physical work that went into making it. The time, the skill! Who was the audience for this type of drawing? Curator: Exactly. Was it made for display? Study? As a model for something else? If it's meant for mass production as an etching, as one tag suggests, we should consider the social circulation of the image and the accessibility afforded to different groups through such technologies. Did that social accessibility change across the almost seventy years during which the artist made work? Editor: So, looking beyond the romantic landscape, you are pointing out the way this work connects with labor, with printmaking as a developing technology, and ultimately with changing economic forces. Curator: Precisely! I am interested in these considerations because they allow us to see how art and society intersect. Editor: I see, thank you for shifting my perspective! Curator: A real pleasure. These material considerations definitely broaden our understanding.