Gezicht op een landschap met een molen before 1899

This landscape, captured by Eduard Arning around the turn of the century, features a seemingly simple motif: a windmill standing against a flat horizon. The windmill, throughout history, symbolizes not just agrarian life, but also human industry's dance with nature. We see this image echoing in earlier Dutch Masters' paintings, where windmills stood as testaments to human ingenuity. However, they also evoke a sense of hubris, much like the Tower of Babel, as they disrupt the natural landscape. Across cultures, similar structures appear, from Tibetan prayer wheels to the water wheels of ancient Persia, each serving as an axis mundi, connecting the earthly and the divine. The cyclical nature of these wheels, like the seasons, reflects our eternal struggle with time and existence. This landscape, with its quiet insistence on the turning wheel, engages the viewer on a subconscious level, stirring deep-seated memories and anxieties about progress and our place in the world.