Stoomlocomotief en een huis met een schoorsteen naast twee bomen c. 1892

Curator: Oh, this is a personal favorite: Julie de Graag's pencil drawing, dating from around 1892, titled *Stoomlocomotief en een huis met een schoorsteen naast twee bomen.* Or, *Steam Train and a house with a chimney next to two trees*. Editor: Immediately, I’m struck by how much story is packed into what feels like a fleeting glimpse. It has a curious stillness. It reminds me of a faded photograph – a record of a quickly changing world. The graphite is so sensitively worked. Curator: Absolutely, and you can really see de Graag capturing that very turning point. It’s such an unassuming medium, pencil on paper, but look at how she builds layers and tone to depict not only the industrial revolution chugging along, but the humble homes it forever altered. Editor: I’m thinking about that chimney, puffing away like the train itself – the domestic mirroring the industrial, both relying on labor. The texture around that cottage— it feels almost hastily drawn. Are we to see it as decaying in the presence of the mighty machine? Curator: Perhaps! I see it as the quickening pace of life, all blurring at the edges! You can almost hear the low rumble of the engine in contrast to the still morning air near the house. De Graag isn’t judging, though. She simply observes and presents this juxtaposition. Editor: True. I can’t help but think about how accessible a pencil is, democratizing the art-making process, while this belching engine would have drastically changed work opportunities, and even dictated working hours for some. And also...just looking at the actual material, pencil, and all its potential. The surface has taken the image so nicely! Curator: De Graag embraced the potential and saw poetry in progress, rendering it all in wonderfully textured graphite, didn’t she? It’s like she anticipated that the scene was about to vanish. Editor: Exactly. It makes you consider how profoundly art, whether monumental or minimal, interacts with the ebb and flow of progress and memory. Curator: Yes. Seeing de Graag's impression has definitely stayed with me and hopefully encourages that spirit in everyone else as well.