Koe in een weiland met knotwilgen 1834 - 1903

Curator: This sketch, currently residing here at the Rijksmuseum, is titled "Cow in a Meadow with Pollard Willows". Johan Hendrik Weissenbruch created this intimate piece sometime between 1834 and 1903 using pencil on paper. Editor: My first impression is quiet, peaceful even. The starkness of the pencil on paper makes it feel immediate, like a captured moment. Curator: Absolutely. Weissenbruch, you see, was deeply concerned with the physical act of drawing, using readily available and relatively inexpensive materials. Pencil and paper allowed him to capture these fleeting moments with a certain level of immediacy. Note the roughness of the paper; the graphite sticks well, yielding strong and textured lines that describe the plants in the meadow, and especially, the twisted branches of the pollard willows. Editor: I’m drawn to those very willows. Their pollarded forms, these truncated limbs, feel like silent witnesses. There's a certain resilience, almost stoicism, in their shape. Trees that have been marked but endure, a reminder of the enduring power of nature itself. Are these old methods of coppicing? I see the form but don't know much about the craft itself... Curator: They are a testament to human intervention and interaction with nature for very practical purposes: a traditional Dutch method for encouraging growth for firewood and building material, for example. What you observe is the symbol of constant and cyclical productivity in harmony with landscape: both trees and animal nurture human material existence, and thus shape our perception of nature's cycles and its intrinsic worth. The materiality of this sketch underscores that very physical relationship. Weissenbruch captures the animal among those cultural structures to hint at what nourishes and shapes our reality. Editor: That's an interesting read of the animal forms: like shadowy spirits amidst a stark reality of materials and physical struggle. Even their gentle silhouettes echo in some way the shape of the managed trees. Thanks to Weissenbruch’s process and method of choice, his quick strokes bring us a pastoral image steeped in both nature and history. Curator: Indeed, it becomes more than just a simple landscape drawing.