September 1722 - 1784

Editor: First impression? It's all these tiny, scratchy lines—like someone scribbling a half-remembered dream onto a napkin. I love the texture of the scene. Curator: You're quite right to point that out! What we're looking at here is entitled “September” by Simon Fokke. The dating of this engraving, drawing, and etching in ink suggests its creation occurred somewhere between 1722 and 1784. Editor: September...a sort of harvest scene, maybe? There's someone on horseback being offered a drink. Looks like a traveler stopping at an inn? The scene has a quaint intimacy. Curator: Exactly. We observe a very common scene. Note the detail, it highlights both class distinctions and social customs tied to hospitality. How the means of distributing beverages plays its part, from barrel to rider and helper in-between, reminds me to reflect upon Dutch Golden Age economic exchange. Editor: It’s kind of beautiful, this transaction. He's sitting high, the boy offering the drink at such a great disparity in height--this act of kindness and service—then the horse between them as an in-between creature as well, so much communicated there, a lovely choreography! And yet, how often these everyday exchanges go completely unacknowledged. It makes you think about labor too, doesn't it? Whose hands built that inn, whose filled the barrel... Curator: Precisely. Folkkes use of line, specifically in ink engraving in tandem with pen strokes, shows the material circumstances, allowing him to participate with the production of imagery in a market economy. This very technique opens possibilities that question the assumed divisions of high art. Editor: And just look how effectively the lines, with their variance, create a sense of depth, particularly when evoking the distant trees or billowy clouds in opposition to the building with it's clear purpose. Curator: You capture it beautifully. I would say what draws my attention back to this genre piece, however, is the degree to which its materiality opens possibilities of thinking beyond those divisions that determine art/not art distinctions when considering labor investment under shifting economic constraints tied to production overall, however. Editor: All in all, it makes a perfect little world to pause within. Curator: And in doing so, allows us, too, to understand the bigger, often unseen circumstances.