Hooioppers in een weiland c. 1909s

Curator: This sketch, created with pencil on paper circa 1909 by Alexander Shilling, offers a glimpse into rural life, specifically entitled "Hooioppers in een weiland"—or Haystacks in a Meadow. Editor: Right away, I’m struck by the fragility and rawness of the image, the contrasting intensities. On one page, it looks like barely-there, like maybe it will simply lift off, disappear, or, I don’t know, dissolve, like mist. And on the other, very firm strokes that create strong presences. Curator: Indeed. And let’s consider that word, meadow. Meadows have been romanticized and often appropriated in idyllic pastoral representations, especially by the elite to signify their landed power and privilege. So, thinking about Schilling's era, the rise of socialist movements and the focus on the lives of rural workers challenges us to analyze his landscapes with heightened sensitivity to class dynamics. Who is benefitting from the landscape in this picture? Editor: It's so evocative, but it also holds back somehow. Like a whisper that fades at the end of each sentence. Perhaps that says something about the artist, that he is both present and separate from his work? The roughness communicates to me a sense of immediacy—this meadow is seen, not composed. Curator: Considering artistic representation in the 19th and early 20th centuries, landscape paintings were also often used to bolster nationalistic sentiment. Were they actually celebrations of nature or ways to stake claims and signify possession? So it becomes intriguing that Schilling presents us with a sketch. What is gained or lost when a sketch captures landscape as opposed to a painting? Editor: I see what you're getting at... Maybe a sketch is a little less weighted down. The speed and portability communicate more of a spirit or breath than solid permanence? And then perhaps it evades these loaded meanings... Curator: Ultimately, Shilling's meadows open up pathways to wider discussions of land ownership, labor practices, and ecological consciousness that were so relevant at the turn of the century. I find that compelling in this small, fragile scene. Editor: Right. Now I’m just wondering what it felt like, you know, the smells, the sounds—what sort of stories it could tell if sketches could actually whisper?