Paard en figuren op een kade c. 1868s - 1878s

Curator: This is "Paard en figuren op een kade," or "Horse and Figures on a Quay," a pencil drawing on paper created by Jan Willem van Borselen around 1868 to 1878. Editor: It feels like a fleeting moment, doesn’t it? A captured glimpse, almost a secret stolen from a busy harbor scene. The sketchiness adds to that sense of immediacy. Curator: Absolutely. It’s fascinating how Borselen used such simple materials, just pencil and paper, to convey a sense of a bustling working environment. I’m thinking of the dockworkers and stevedores who populated quaysides like this at the time. Editor: The choice of pencil as a medium is interesting, it suggests an everydayness and a disposability to the artwork. As if drawing was simply the handmaiden of labor... or perhaps an aristocratic escape from such things. The rapid, almost frantic strokes, give a sense of urgency too. I’m curious about the paper itself, was it fine quality, or something more readily available? Curator: The Rijksmuseum catalogue doesn't specify the exact paper, but you're right, it would speak volumes. Think about what we often overlook – the mills that produced the paper, the forests they came from, the laborers involved there. A simple drawing hints at an entire economic ecosystem. Editor: And the figures! They are so roughly drawn, but their very presence suggests a hierarchy: the horse as a beast of burden, the handlers and the unseen labor they undertake… I'm wondering about the narrative, who these people are and what's being loaded on or off of those boats. Curator: Van Borselen wasn’t trying to immortalize these workers as individuals, I feel. Rather, he sought to document the essence of dockside activity. His attention to the horse suggests the animal’s central role, as both a valuable commodity and an indispensable piece of machinery. It adds to the emotional landscape of a time before the modern machine, when working animals offered so much energy. Editor: A perfect metaphor, I suppose. It makes you ponder, doesn't it? A humble pencil drawing on paper, revealing the monumental complexities of labor, materials, and human life along the quayside. It leaves me thoughtful about how seemingly insignificant things can carry great weight. Curator: Precisely! Next time you see a simple sketch, remember the world held within its lines. The artist, the materials, the people—all interconnected in ways we might not initially imagine.