Kalenderblad november met kraai 1904

Curator: What a striking image! This is "Kalenderblad november met kraai" a calendar sheet for November with a crow by Theo van Hoytema, created in 1904. It's currently housed at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: It feels like November looks grey, solitary, perhaps even a bit ominous, right? That crow dominating the composition casts a strong, almost melancholic shadow over everything. I imagine looking at it everyday. Curator: Crows do have that association, don't they? But here, within the Art Nouveau and Symbolist styles, I see more than just darkness. The crow can be seen as a messenger, a harbinger of change as nature prepares for winter, of the introspective dark period. Editor: I like that alternative reading. Hoytema was clearly aware of the crow's loaded symbolism. The overall design aesthetic definitely places the print within the political and artistic conversations of the late 19th and early 20th centuries too; crows were associated with marginalized and lower class people in The Hague. The elegant Art Nouveau framing creates such a visual contrast. It feels politically charged. Curator: I completely agree. Notice the intricate details in the crow's feathers. Hoytema has captured a specific essence and movement. The landscape in the background and the calendar numbers down below, rendered in very similar shades and techniques, further accentuate that symbolism and connection between nature, human activity, and time. Editor: I appreciate that you pointed that out. The rendering of the landscape is dreamlike as the yellow hues of the calendar sheet contrast sharply with the stark calendar days marked by miniature crows, which creates that unique perspective and that relationship you talk about. Van Hoytema is clearly embedding a comment about labor. Curator: Precisely! He uses symbolic language, informed by his emotional relationship with birds, and with his relationship to landscape, to suggest something bigger. Van Hoytema evokes that same complex sense of emotional ambivalence here. The illustration resonates for those very tensions, wouldn't you agree? Editor: Absolutely. Seeing it through both a political and a symbolic lens offers a fuller appreciation of the visual tension and allows for some appreciation of marginalized people from that period.