Three Travelers at the Foot of a High Rock c. 1645 - 1656

Editor: So, this is "Three Travelers at the Foot of a High Rock" by Allart van Everdingen, made around 1645-1656. It's an etching, a kind of print. What strikes me is how dramatic and a little brooding the landscape seems, despite being so small. What do you make of it? Curator: Dramatic indeed! It's a slice of the Nordic sublime seen through 17th-century eyes. Everdingen, though Dutch, travelled to Scandinavia and that raw, imposing nature really impacted him. It's all about scale, isn’t it? These tiny figures dwarfed by the monumental rock... Have you ever felt like that, a speck in the face of something overwhelming? Editor: Definitely. I went hiking in the Rockies last summer, and felt the same. This makes me wonder, did many people travel for leisure like this back then? Curator: Not as we think of it. This image, like many genre scenes, speaks to a growing fascination with the natural world but also maybe with the "picturesque". Notice the composition – the jagged rock, the carefully placed trees directing your eye towards the village. It’s not a literal record, it's carefully arranged theatre. Those dramatic clouds might be nature's applause. Editor: Theatre, I like that! I guess I was getting caught up in the idea of it being a real place and real people. Curator: Art does that to us, doesn't it? It makes us question, to reimagine. And that’s what I take from Everdingen’s rugged scene – a conversation on our smallness within vast beauty. Makes you feel delightfully insignificant, in a good way. Editor: Absolutely. Thinking about it as theatre and this dialogue between small figures and massive nature has totally shifted my perspective on it. Curator: Mine too! Each time I see it, new nuances jump out, a never-ending dialogue between image and ourselves.