Landschap met berken bij een bocht in een rivier 1865 - 1910

Curator: Looking at this etching, I’m instantly transported to a quieter place. The fine lines seem to whisper. Editor: Absolutely, there’s a subtle melancholy there, isn't there? This is "Landschap met berken bij een bocht in een rivier," or "Landscape with Birches by a Bend in a River," created by Louis Adolphe Jacobs sometime between 1865 and 1910. What’s striking is the level of detail he achieves with such a laborious, industrial medium like etching. It's housed right here in the Rijksmuseum. Curator: It really is quite beautiful. Those silver birch trees, almost like pale ghosts standing guard by the river's edge, make me feel wonderfully pensive. What do you make of the technique? Editor: As an etching, the production involves coating a metal plate with wax, scratching an image into the wax, and then submerging the plate in acid, which bites into the exposed metal to create the recessed lines that hold the ink. It’s interesting to think of Jacobs meticulously controlling acid erosion to give us such a sense of tranquility, so much nature! Curator: Exactly! It's almost as if the natural scene is in conversation with this very hands-on industrial method, which brings an appealing touch of grit to all this serene landscape. How was it intended to be viewed, though? Editor: Prints like this would have been part of a burgeoning market for art that could be easily and cheaply disseminated. Realism sought to represent scenes as they were, as found by artists who valued being honest to everyday reality in order to achieve that level of calm. Curator: And they could never have imagined these original materials surviving to enchant us today! I agree it's the sheer accessibility which makes these small scenes somehow monumental, and the work brings me calm in the way one always searches for through nature. Editor: Seeing how that meticulous work of making landscapes then allowed so many people to buy and share it across social classes really allows us to reflect on accessibility in our art system today. Curator: Well, it certainly has me reflecting today.