Standing cow to the left 

Curator: Here we have "Standing cow to the left," a pencil drawing housed here at the Städel Museum, by Friedrich Wilhelm Hirt. Editor: My first thought is of simplicity; it's like a fleeting glimpse of rural life captured with such delicate lines. The texture created by the pencil almost makes me feel the rough hide of the cow. Curator: Yes, Hirt's rendering indeed invites us to appreciate rural simplicity, but it is essential to look at the artistic conventions and power structures implicit within this representation of the agrarian. Editor: You’re right, it is worth questioning. Does the seeming simplicity mask a deeper idealization of rural life, a perspective that potentially glosses over the lived realities of those connected to the land? Curator: Exactly! During Hirt’s era, the prevailing societal views heavily influenced such artistic portrayals. One must ask who the image serves: does it represent a sincere depiction, or perpetuate a romanticized, perhaps even exploitative, view of agriculture and its workers? Editor: It makes me wonder about access too. Images like these—even simple sketches—circulated within particular social strata. What about the stories and lived experiences absent from the frame? Whose perspectives are valorized versus silenced? Curator: These works provided a sense of grounding to an urbanizing elite. So while on the surface, it's a simple pastoral image, under examination it illustrates larger economic, social and cultural narratives of its time. The question is always, what does it tell us about the power of representation, then and now? Editor: Thinking about that tension—between simple beauty and embedded social narratives—gives me so much to consider moving forward, every mark on the paper. Curator: For me, it reaffirms that to appreciate this drawing fully we should look into the power dynamics embedded in our aesthetic choices and social systems that elevated the landscape genre during his time.