Koeien bij een rij bomen c. 1876 - 1888

Curator: This quick sketch, titled "Cows Near a Row of Trees," comes to us from Anton Mauve, likely executed between 1876 and 1888. It's a humble drawing in pencil that resides in the Rijksmuseum collection. Editor: My initial feeling is one of quiet observation. It feels very immediate, like a snatched moment in the countryside. Raw and unpretentious. Curator: Indeed. Mauve was working during a time when artists were increasingly interested in capturing everyday life. He would have been embedded within a shifting social landscape of rurality versus growing urban centers. Artists wanted to reveal more authentic forms of art that embraced all spheres of influence, and therefore all peoples and all geographies of their country. This unpretentious and almost accidental composition could have been a conscious choice to embrace naturalism and represent subjects as close as possible to their normal day to day activities, like these cows we are admiring today. Editor: Cows have had powerful and complex symbolism through art history though, haven't they? Often related to themes of domesticity, fertility, nourishment... Even female power sometimes? But these depictions... They feel somehow devoid of grandeur, of almost any narrative weight whatsoever. Curator: Precisely, that may be entirely the point, though. I think that in an era that saw increased rural to urban migration for economic opportunities in The Netherlands and elsewhere, there must have been increased desire for these images among urban audiences. Editor: Yes, there’s something about its unfinished nature that heightens that sense of intimacy too. The sketchy quality makes me feel like I’m looking directly into the artist’s own experience. And those cows, so calmly rendered amidst their setting! Curator: Absolutely. Perhaps even offering the sense of reclaiming a traditional Dutch symbol amid that major period of societal transition that the Netherlands was entering. It highlights both a kind of humble lifestyle and, from a perspective outside the artwork itself, can be framed by viewers as both political and comforting, for different individuals and reasons. Editor: It’s fascinating how a simple sketch can speak volumes about cultural values and shifts when examined closely. Curator: It really does showcase how a seemingly straightforward depiction holds so much more within its lines and composition. I appreciate that point you emphasized so clearly.