Liefdespaar in een roeiboot c. 1840 - 1860

Curator: Well, this feels like a page torn right from a dream, doesn't it? Almost ethereal... Editor: It certainly has that unfinished quality, as though we've stumbled upon a private moment. This is "Liefdespaar in een roeiboot," or "Couple in a Rowboat," by Charles Rochussen, likely created sometime between 1840 and 1860. Currently, it resides here at the Rijksmuseum. Curator: Ah, Rochussen. I can almost hear the scratch of the pencil on the page. See how the figures seem to emerge from the paper itself? It's as if he’s captured the very essence of a fleeting thought. But what’s with the staging, would you say? Two love birds off to the side of what looks like a romantic triple date on a lake. Editor: The juxtaposition is quite interesting, isn't it? It feels staged, almost like a theatrical tableau within a landscape. I'm struck by how the boating party seems central, and that’s the piece referenced in the title, and how those figures don't seem to acknowledge, or even be aware of, the embracing couple, giving the piece an intimate and maybe a politically rebellious undertone. What’s clear to me is how art then was really tied to societal perceptions and behaviors; Rochussen isn't just doodling, he is making a pointed comment. Curator: A rebel with a pencil, eh? I love that idea. There is a tender sensibility to the male figure catching the falling lady on land though. What do you read that tableau to mean? I love that everything seems like it could float away any second now because of how wispy it all feels... Like love itself. Editor: Yes, a subtle revolutionary, perhaps. The airy quality, that sketchy freedom... It was a period where artists began breaking free from rigid academic styles, moving towards a more personal, immediate expression, that kind of light pencil work must have ruffled some feathers. And that little drama happening near land certainly conveys strong social mores with romantic liaisons back then. Curator: Ruffling feathers indeed. This little drawing, born from a fleeting moment, holds within it a whole world. Editor: A world of unspoken desires, societal expectations, and the quiet rebellion of an artist giving form to the invisible. Something tells me that if Rochussen was sketching today, Instagram would never forgive him for making the art and not capturing the context and making it political in a clear call to action.