Bosgezicht 1821 - 1891

Curator: Guillaume Anne van der Brugghen’s “Bosgezicht,” painted between 1821 and 1891, depicts a tranquil wooded scene. Editor: It’s… muted. And dense. The brushstrokes almost feel haphazard, yet somehow evoke the stillness of a forest. Is that road or ground in the foreground? Curator: Note the materiality of the oil paint, the layering and the thickness that van der Brugghen employed. Look at how that technique would speak to contemporary manufacturing and processing techniques that made those types of pigment layering possible. Editor: And, how the tonal range is deliberately restricted. Notice the restricted pallettes! Observe how this focus compels us to consider the structure of the composition: how the trees define planes and the ground provides a horizon, even though there isn’t a sky. The eye is invited inward through repetition. Curator: That's right. It speaks to the availability of leisure time, of the developing sense of urbanization in Europe, of these being commissioned work for a class that may now be afforded certain material comfort due to the increased industrialization. Editor: A scene, seemingly devoid of human presence, offers more than a picture, the execution itself invites analysis, creating something intimate for the observer. Curator: Right, we're speaking to a painting reflecting not just the rise of industrialization but its cost as well. Romanticizing an inaccessible rural area that they now own. The work would represent their success but ignore all of those they are standing on to look out and view. Editor: You’ve touched on a relevant dichotomy; what the form invites versus what we discover of the social history… perhaps we all should try and get lost here a little while longer? Curator: Let's appreciate the full spectrum that an era can create. From brushstroke to bank account, "Bosgezicht" leaves quite the memory in more than one way.