Good evening, old man! the boy greeted 1915

Curator: Oh, this gives me goosebumps, doesn't it? The light, the quiet expectancy… Editor: Let's orient our listeners, shall we? We are looking at John Bauer's "Good evening, old man! the boy greeted," painted in 1915 using gouache, with watercolor qualities too, if I'm not mistaken. Curator: Right. What a perfect medium for conjuring that otherworldliness! Bauer… he gets right into the marrow of those old stories, doesn’t he? I can almost feel the chill of the Swedish forest in the picture, see those hopeful, slightly absurd, figures playing out their roles. Editor: There is a powerful contrast in scale – the stooping troll figure seems burdened not just by that enormous sack, but by its age and presumed role in folklore, lording over this almost spectral boy who in turn appears rather sturdily upright. What kind of labor did it involve to prepare the ground for that tension using layers of translucent paint? The economic implications of those pigments? I wish we knew more! Curator: Maybe it’s about all burdens: inherited stories, class differences, even. Yet there is a lovely kind of tenderness about how they confront each other, like actors in a tiny, momentous play. The troll’s posture—humbled somehow. Bauer allows a real connection. I'd say there’s something incredibly delicate in how it addresses the power dynamic through this interaction. Editor: It's interesting you pick up on delicacy—for all of this apparent sentiment, look at the rather heavy, textured brushstrokes of the troll's "fur", suggesting an object rather than a character. The fairy tale feels rather fabricated as the materiality breaks through. The boy and the troll are caught in this very constructed moment… it begs us to wonder what stories get produced for whose benefit. Curator: It seems that maybe Bauer suggests even in stories the unexpected connections are always, mysteriously possible… almost hovering between dimensions like in the Art Nouveau. Editor: Perhaps you're right; there might be magic woven even in these rather earthy, crafted realities!