Gezicht op een jonge vrouw in een roeiboot tussen het riet before 1902

Editor: Here we have “Gezicht op een jonge vrouw in een roeiboot tussen het riet”, which translates to "View of a young woman in a rowboat among the reeds". This artwork, before 1902, by O. Nothnagel appears to be a photograph or a print perhaps even a photomontage. There's a hazy, dreamlike quality to the scene, almost like looking at a memory. What leaps out at you when you see this piece? Curator: You know, that “dreamlike quality” really nails it. It’s like catching a half-remembered impression. The figure feels very much part of the scenery, you know? I immediately imagine her immersed in the stillness. It is as though she could sink and disappear into this quiet nowhere and reappear as something just as peaceful: a floating root or perhaps even a tall, quiet reed. This is how memory plays tricks, I suppose: presenting us with what is, was, and might as well be, without pause. Tell me, does that connection resonate? Editor: Absolutely! It’s a blurring of boundaries, life and environment coexisting, which brings so much calm into a rather dark image, or maybe just an image using heavy contrast to emphasize shape. The line dividing the sky, water and plant life feels indistinct. Curator: Yes! Indistinct and maybe non-existent! Exactly! Now think of this: what is outside the frame? More water? More reeds? The suggestion of what isn't present only seems to strengthen what IS depicted. What do you make of it, then? Editor: It's all about feeling, I think. Rather than information. Evoking a certain stillness, like the world holding its breath. Thanks to you, I'm seeing new layers. Curator: It's that lingering quiet that does it for me every time! Wonderful.