Schets van een landschap met een molen en een boerderij 1797 - 1870

Curator: Andreas Schelfhout’s "Sketch of a Landscape with a Mill and a Farm," made with pencil, resides here at the Rijksmuseum. It’s dated sometime between 1797 and 1870. Editor: It feels fleeting, almost dreamlike. The lines are so delicate; you could easily miss the whole thing. There's a softness that makes it strangely melancholic, like a memory fading. Curator: That softness comes, in part, from his medium. He’s using pencil to capture, I think, not just the topography but a certain atmospheric quality, a mood. Consider the density of the lines around the mill compared to the airy strokes defining the sky. It guides the eye, no? Editor: Absolutely. The mill dominates without overpowering. It's like a character in a story. The roof lines of the farm pull my eye horizontally across the composition and frame the mill vertically. It all makes it feel very intentional and ordered. And romantic, wouldn’t you say? The everyday, elevated through artistry. Curator: Definitely. There's a hint of Romanticism, especially in the way he idealizes the rural scene. This isn't just a landscape; it’s a vision of tranquility and harmony. And if you look closely at the details, the human figures add another layer. See them in the foreground there? Editor: Yes, I love that little vignette with figures that hints at rural life. It makes you wonder what they were doing, the people who may have lived in those times and called that area home. Did Schelfhout himself spend much time sketching en plein air? I feel he managed to seize some beauty out of the everyday life, like Wordsworth with words, but without any need to impress. Curator: We can suppose he did venture outdoors quite a bit! And you are right: I find beauty also in the unassuming scale. You would walk past this unassuming small-scale artwork in a hallway, or in the staircase landing area here. Its impact is intimate, inviting close contemplation to discern such artistry in something seemingly minor. Editor: I find the pencil sketch an intimate record of nature, it invites us to reimagine a life or story in the distant landscape as Schelfhout once had done. I am now so taken away that I feel ready to read some Wordsworth myself. Curator: Yes, it holds that power; an encounter where time perhaps doesn’t matter as much, to reimagine the familiar in some place where one could happily pass the time.